During his 40-year career in the Italian fashion world, Ken Scott was named many ways: the Maestro of ultra-floral prints, the Gardener of Fashion and a print-happy American in Milan. But the US-born whiz-kid George Kenneth Scott actually started his creative career as a painter jumping between the US and the French Riviera, where he hobnobbed with a glittering group of friends including artist Marc Chagall and Peggy Guggenheim who organized exhibits for him.
Scott’s fashion life took flight in the 1950s when Christian Dior serendipitously used one of his floral prints in a Parisian runway collection. Boom! Ken quickly moved to Milan and in 1954 launched, together with Vittorio Fiorazzo, his own printed textile brand Falconetto.
Just like Midas that turns everything to gold, Scott made his fabric designs bloom with a stroke of bright, colorful flowers: peonies, roses, poppies, sunflowers, petunias and asters. Scott gave power to the flowers before the term Flower Power even existed. In 1962 his own name finally became a brand synonymous with colorful, bold, witty apparel and accessories.
The world’s most stylist women, from Audrey Hepburn and Twiggy, to Jackie Kennedy and Brigitte Bardot, all fell in love with the unique and vibrant style of his tunic dresses, skirts, bikinis. Meanwhile chic housewives from around the world embraced his printaholic attitude and had their furniture and walls covered by uber-floral Falconetto’s fabrics and wallpapers.
Back in his adopted home of Milan, the eclectic American dandy covered the city’s most luxury shopping street via Montenapoleone with a huge floral printed carpet… Just because! He also opened a restaurant entirely covered by his flower prints whose name was simply “Eats and drinks”.
With his penchant for more is more maximalism, Ken Scott clearly remains one of our fashion muses and spiritual guides at LDJ. Here we offer you a selection of our favorite pieces by him and from small boutiques and brands who used Falconetto’s fabrics in their ready-to-wear pieces. Get ready for some Flower Power, babe!
– Livia Satriano
