This Man Makes The Clothes (Prince Mention)

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Thread started 03/22/05 2:14pm

ChiTownNPG

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This Man Makes The Clothes (Prince Mention)

http://www.suntimes.com/o...lie22.html

Source: SunTimes.com, March 22, 2005
By Mike Thomas

First, know this: The sleepwear wasn't his.

Michael Jackson's trusted fashion designer, Chicago native Willie Scott, didn't craft those formless pajama bottoms the legally beleaguered pop star wore as he gingerly inched his way into court earlier this month.

The other duds, though -- those are Scott's. Many of them, anyway. Or as Scott evasively puts it, "more than one." Like the dark blue suit and pearly silk vest Jackson wore last year to his first court date, when he danced atop his limo. Otherwise, demurs Scott, who's evasive because of a confidentiality agreement with Jackson, "I can't tell you." (However, it's been reported that he has been tapped to craft outfits for each day of Jackson's trial.)

On a recent evening, Scott arrived at the Four Seasons hotel in a dark blue five-button crepe suit (four buttons hidden, his label), which contrasted beautifully with reddish socks and square-toed chestnut lace-ups. Shirt: light-blue check pattern, French cuff, Milan-made. Matching tie: bow. Sturdy travel bag: Louis Vuitton. Head: shaved. Grooming: precise.

Dude, as the kids say, was fly.

"You probably will [seldom] see me in a bow tie," said the 44-year-old Scott, who also fashions fashions for the nattiest bow-tie guy on earth, Chicago-based Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

"You're talking about a clean guy. Impeccable," he said of Farrakhan, through whose son Jackson and Scott first connected. "As far as his wardrobe, [Farrakhan is] one of my clients who I really appreciate because he's so serious about his clothes. You can't get anything wrong. Everything has to be perfect. Which is a challenge, but it also keeps you on your toes, keeps you focused on what you're supposed to be doing."

Isiah's boyhood chum

Scott -- a former basketball pro himself who played overseas before retiring in 1995 -- also has dressed Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Chicago-born pro hoops standout Tim Hardaway, and erstwhile Detroit Pistons superstar Isiah Thomas, the latter of whom he's known since childhood on Chicago's West Side. The two honed their jumpers and dunks in a traveling youth league at Martin Luther King Boys Club on West Washington. Back then, survival trumped style.

"When I open up the label and I see 'Willie Scott-designed,' when I see his name, it always brings me back home," said Thomas, now general manager of the New York Knicks. "And the place that I go is he and I walking the streets, sittin' in the hallway stranded, lookin' for a piece of food ... or sittin' at Al's beggin' for a hot dog, or hoping that somebody drops a french fry. He always brings me back home."

Thomas, of course, went on to college and pro stardom. On a different level, so did Scott. During a basketball stint in Italy, the world's epicenter of fashion, he learned basic tailoring from some designer mates at a Milan fashion house. "You only play once a week [overseas], so I had a lot of leisure time," Scott said. "And I would just go in there and I was spending all my money getting clothes made."

Eventually, he began hanging out on a regular basis, taking measurements and helping patrons choose fabrics. He also learned to sew. "I knew then that that's what I wanted to do," he says. "It was so clear that God had lined it up."

Now his seven-year-old company, Willie Scott Custom Clothier, is thriving, and word of his talent is spreading.

A couple of years ago, Prince commissioned Scott to create a new wardrobe for his Musicology tour. He wore a Scott-made double-breasted purple outfit with crisscross lapels while performing with Beyonce Knowles at the Grammy ceremony in 2004.

"For the most part, he comes up with his own designs," Scott said of Prince. "So he makes life easy for me. I just make it. I think he has someone sketch it. When I get it, it's like, 'How did he come up with that?' But I make it."

Scott's client wish list is long, and dapper linksman Tiger Woods ranks near the top. So does His Airness Michael Jordan. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, as terrorist chaos unfolded out East, Scott awaited Jordan's arrival in an office downtown. Safety concerns prevented the pair from meeting that day, but they've golfed together since. "If I'm supposed to have him," Scott said, "I'll get him."

Based on the South Side

The son of a Chicago cop (Willie Sr. died in 1990) and the fifth of 10 kids, Scott has strong local roots. His mother and four of five sisters live in town, as do his two daughters, Tiffany and Jasmine. Scott, 10 years divorced, owns a South Side pad, his base of operations.

Mostly, though, he's on the move, on the road, doing fitting after fitting and presiding over teams of tailors in Atlanta, Los Angeles and locally, where he once had retail shops at 2240 S. Michigan and 641 W. Grand.

As he told a Canadian newspaper in 1992, "I just go out and have fun. That's what basketball is all about. When I stop smiling, then I know it's time for me to hang up my shoes."

After all, it's what you wear from ear to ear and not from head to toe that matters.

You, too, can own a Willie Scott original. For an appointment, phone (773) 778-7936 or e-mail WSfashion@aol.com.

Peace and Stay Wild!

Jill
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http://launch.groups.yaho...Generation

cbak1999	it's not unusual for P and MJ to share the same professionals. two decades ago they had the same CPA Bill Moultree.and the same lawyer Lee Phelps. P did have his own clothing design team in the 1980s, but then he discovered Paris and the European designers.
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