L’Wren Scott fashion auction evokes brother’s memories of the late designer to the stars
This Feb. 16, 2012, file photo shows designer L'Wren Scott, center, after her Fall 2012 collection was modeled during Fashion Week in New York. Scott was found dead Monday, March 17, 2014, in Manhattan of a possible suicide. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
A lot from the L'Wren Scott Collection, being auctioned by Christie's in London starting Wednesday, June 9, 2021. The dress at right was worn by Nicole Kidman at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
Amy Adams wears a dress at the 2000 Academy Awards designed by L'Wren Scott. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
L'Wren Scott was found dead Monday, March 17, 2014, in New York. Scott, who was musician Mick Jagger's girlfriend, was found dead of a possible suicide, a law enforcement official said Monday. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
OGDEN — Randy Bambrough says his sister, the late fashion designer L’Wren Scott from Roy, would be happy to see some of her best works auctioned for arts education.
Rock star Mick Jagger established the L’Wren Scott Scholarship at Central Saint Martins in London after the death of his longtime partner in 2014. On Wednesday, Christie’s of London is opening a 55-lot auction of what it describes as Scott’s most important pieces, including two stage jackets she designed for Jagger. Proceeds go to the scholarship.
“I think she’d be very honored by this,” Bambrough, who grew up with Scott in Roy, said in an interview Tuesday. “She had no formal education in design. Hers is all self-taught. She was an ultimate teacher, who tried to pass on the craft after she learned it through the school of hard knocks. This would very much please her.”
Scott and Bambrough came of age in a home near Roy Junior High and their upbringing was “very much middle-class America,” he said.
But Scott was so tall, eventually growing to 6-foot-3, she adapted in a way unlike the average middle-class kid, Bambrough said.
“That was a big aspect of her life,” he said. “It’s not like you could walk away from being that tall.”
Early on, it was an impediment in her mind, Bambrough said, until their mother told he she should use it as a strength.
“Finding clothing to wear was a nightmare, so it started her on her path of designing clothes, and Mom helped,” Bambrough said.
Items in the two-week auction were contributed by Jagger, Bambrough said. The Rolling Stones star worked with the art school to set up the scholarship after Scott died, “and this auction is a way of expanding on it.”
The auction, running until July 1, includes red-carpet dresses and ensembles worn by Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Madonna, Amy Adams and others.
Bambrough pointed to the “beautiful” forward for the collection, written by Cathy Horyn, a former New York Times fashion critic.
“L’Wren was the rare designer whose knowledge of fit and construction came from both French couture and Hollywood costume shops, and she understood, as well, how vulnerable performers could be, especially female performers,” Horyn wrote. “She had a wonderful way of shoring up one’s confidence with her calm manner and humor.”
Bambrough, who spent 25 years in Silicon Valley and now lives in Ogden, where he helps tech startups, said his sister went to Hollywood, then Europe, and became a stylist for the stars. She parlayed that into a design company.
He said he was Scott’s guest at the 2000 Academy Awards, where she was the event’s director of style.
“The circle she ran with was pretty incredible — kings, presidents, corporate titans, the elite of the elite in the industry, and then with Mick, the ultimate power couple,” he said.
Scott, 49, was found by her assistant in her New York City apartment, dead of suicide, Bambrough said.
“It came as a complete surprise,” he said. “The business aspect of it, she had some struggles, but we were helping her pivot to different things.”
Bambrough said he was grateful when he heard about the auction because it would be “another chance to honor L’Wren.”
“This is another opportunity to celebrate her life, and isn’t it wonderful to be helping someone become the next L’Wren Scott?” he said.