Max out message sums up Scott

Nov 23 2009 by Liz Lamb, The Journal

Fashion designer Scott Henshall will be back on home turf this week when he hosts a night of fashion and beauty in the region. Liz Lamb takes a look at his career.

HIS designs have been worn by the likes of stars such as Paris Hilton, Madonna, Charlotte Church, Kylie and Victoria Beckham and he was catapulted into celebrity status himself when he appeared on the reality show I’m A Celebrity.

Scott Henshall has come a long way since he graduated from the fashion course at Northumbria University.

Originally from York, he ended up in Hartlepool, County Durham, because of his bank manager dad’s relocation further north.

He was a precocious talent – passing his art GCSE with an A when he was just 10 – eventually studying fashion at Northumbria and becoming the youngest ever designer to show at London Fashion Week before winning the Vidal Sassoon Award for Cutting Edge talent in 2000.

He became the man who invented the “message dress”.

A definite king of bling whose mantra is to max out. He thinks Barbie is a great role model for women and one of his many claims to fame is that he designed the world’s most expensive frock – that £5 million dress adorned with real diamonds.

“I dress girls who want to have fun,” says Scott. “I enjoy making them look like Barbie dolls. They are the maximum attention dress. Max out and sparkle at the flashbulbs and go for glam, glam and more glam, I like the idea that I can make someone more famous.”

He has enjoyed many a front page with his outrageous dresses. It started with Jodie Kidd in her revealing cobweb dress for the premiere of Spiderman and was followed with the £5 million follow-up for Spiderman 3 worn by Samantha Mumba – to this day, the world’s most expensive dress woven with real web-cut diamonds.

It’s a world away from his beginnings in the North East.

“My workforce was in Hartlepool because there were still seamstresses in Hartlepool when I finished at Northumbria,” he says.