courtesy photo
Fashion designer Jeremy Scott has teamed with Korean car company Hyundai for a couture capsule collection.
The collection, featuring 10 one-of-a-kind pieces, is crafted from upcycled Hyundai motor car waste. The collaboration is part of Hyundai’s Re:Style program, an initiative, now in its fourth year, that taps top fashion designers to upcycle automotive waste into fashion.
The project debuts just after Scott said he would step down as creative director of Moschino after 10 years.
Jeremy Scott’s capsule collection made from recycled Hyundai car parts.
Hyundai first launched the project in 2019 with fashion designer Maria Cornejo. Re:Style has also successfully collaborated with Selfridges in London and L’Eclaireur in Paris.
Hyundai approached Scott about the Re:Style project during the 2022 FIFA World Cup after the car company had him design a series of jerseys. Hyundai asked the designer how he would feel about a project using recycled car parts, and the collaboration was born.
Jeremy Scott’s capsule collection made from recycled Hyundai car parts.
For the capsule collection, Scott used discarded materials from the production of Hyundai Motor Company’s electric vehicles.
“The Hyundai car became my muse,” Scott said. “I started thinking about how I would take this look to somewhere like the Met Gala. I wanted something bold, theatrical and whimsical.”
To create his car-inspired ball-gown fantasies, Scott added seatbelt strap details to gowns, took car handles to make jackets and made a fishtail dress out of windshield wipers. He described the collection as “’50s cocktail meets cyberpunk.”
While Scott acknowledged he loved the experience of designing the collection, he also said that working with upcycled car parts was a learning process. “I had so much fun doing this collection, but it was challenging,” he said. “To capture the essence of what I wanted properly using recycled car parts wasn’t easy. Try creating the under structure of a gown using windshield wipers.”
Jeremy Scott’s capsule collection made from recycled Hyundai car parts.
The idea behind the collection was to address the environmental impact of both the fashion and automotive industries. Scott is known for being a part of the fashion upcycling moment by reinterpreting dry-cleaning bags, torn magazines and trash cans into ready-to-wear looks. Leftover materials from HMC’s electric vehicles he used to create his Re:Style collection include Bio TPO Skin, made in part from sugarcane extracts, bio PET, and car parts such as hub caps, wires and keys.
Sungwon Jee, Hyundai’s vice president and global chief marketing officer, said that Hyundai wanted to connect with the fashion industry through the company’s Re:Style partnership because “the automotive and fashion industries are both considered industries that produce a lot of waste in various industrial channels. We believe discarded waste from these two industries can be transformed into art through the work of creative designers, giving them new value. This fresh perspective shows that waste can be turned into wonderful treasures. The goal is to create opportunities for the automotive and fashion industries to think more actively and creatively about sustainability.”
For Scott, sustainability has become like second nature after his years working with Adidas.
“Working with Adidas now, all fabrications are things that have been recycled,” he said. “Even with Moschino, I used a lot of recycled plastics. Sustainability is so regular in everything I do. This collaboration is definitely different from things I have done in past, but for me creativity is like water. I pour it into a pool or crack on the sidewalk and I let in inspire, challenge and teach me. This collaboration with Hyundai has done all of that.”
The collaboration highlights Hyundai Motors’ commitment to eco-friendly manufacturing and engagement with environmentally conscious consumers. Re:Style is the latest chapter in Hyundai’s mission to be carbon-neutral by 2040 and zero emissions in its supply chain by 2045.
Jee praised Scott’s ability to turn Hyundai’s old and wrongly made-in-production cars into fashion garments saying, “Jeremy has created a couture collection, the highest level of fashion. With his unexpected, witty sense, he visually demonstrates the expansiveness of sustainability, showing that everything that is discarded can be used again and transformed into something beautiful and amazing.”
The Re:Style archive exhibition will launch in Seoul on Wednesday, after which it will open to the public for two weeks. The space will include Jeremy Scott’s collaboration and all the Re:Style archival pieces.
Scott’s latest collaboration comes on the heels of the announcement that after 10 years he would step down from his position as creative director of Moschino. In a statement, he described his time at Moschino as “a wonderful celebration of creativity and imagination.” In an Instagram post announcing his departure from Moschino, he concluded a caption of a photo of him and Gigi Hadid saying, “AS I CLOSE THIS CHAPTER I AM FILLED WITH EXCITEMENT & ANTICIPATION AND CANT [sic] WAIT TO SHARE WITH YOU ALL WHAT I HAVE IN STORE FOR YOU NEXT!”
Scott is also the founder of his own eponymous label, which he founded in 1997. His last Moschino collection for fall 2023 debuted during Milan Fashion Week, drawing inspiration from ’80s Ladies Who Lunch.