10月30日, 2023 — As a young child growing up in Beaverton, 俄勒冈州, 斯科特 Miller staved off boredom by using his mother’s sewing scraps to fashion outfits for a snack he found in the kitchen — peanuts in their shells. 

毫无疑问, 米勒注定要进入时尚界, and he eventually became the Vice President of Design at Perry Ellis International. It was a dream he never gave up on that led him to design for major men’s clothing brands, 比如科尔·哈恩.

这学期, Miller became a full-time professional lecturer in Marist’s fashion program, swapping the Hippodrome building on the Avenue of the Americas in New York City for the Steel Plant on Beck Place in Poughkeepsie. 成为他所在系的教员, 要求有行业经验, and Miller’s career advice aligns with his own personal discovery:

“开放, 尝试的东西, 看看它会把你引向何方,米勒说。, 谁教针织品?, 视觉陈列, 纺织科学, 和更多的.

斯科特 Miller poses in the Creative Resource Center surrounded by fabric samples. Photo by Nelson Echeverria/bet亚洲365欢迎投注.

A Big Move Into New York City’s Fashion World

2000年，米勒冒了一次险. He moved from the West Coast to New York City and enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), earning his associate’s degree in fashion design within one year.

FIT’s program led to an internship at Tuleh, an emerging women’s designer fashion company in the city, 打开了G-III的大门. The global apparel group owns and has licensees for major brands, 包括九西, DKNY, 还有汤米·希尔费格. Although Miller thought he preferred to design womenswear, the CEO of G-III noticed the designer’s personal style and successful collections and steered him toward menswear.

斯科特 Miller’s design concept for an American Sportswear line he developed as the Vice President of Design at Perry Ellis.

“I had this complete a-ha moment,” Miller said about changing genres. 2001年至2009年, 他在G-III工作, 从九西开始, 自有品牌, 然后科尔·哈恩成为顶级设计师. In 2009, 他加入了佩里埃利斯, 全球男士时尚公司, rising through the ranks as a senior designer, 设计总监, 最后在2015年, 作为设计副总裁.

Nurturing creativity, Miller’s early years

From learning to sew and mastering knitting, a big part of Miller’s fashion destiny began during his adolescent years.

“My mother could knit with her eyes closed and feet up on the dashboard in the car,” Miller said. 十几岁的时候, he got into costume design for high school theater and turned to books once he surpassed his mother’s skills.

On left: Miller holds peanuts to demonstrate the clothes he made for them as a child. Photo by Nelson Echeverria/bet亚洲365欢迎投注. 右边:玛娜·米勒和她的儿子, 斯科特, who she taught how to sew and inspired his fashion career. 图片由斯科特·米勒提供.

高中毕业后, he enrolled at Western Washington University, where the fashion program was phased out during his first year. 未被吓住, 他主修工作室艺术, with a focus on fiber arts and sculpture, often relating the classwork back to clothing, 身体, 和食物.

With his college degree in hand, Miller’s job search in 1994 could not have come at a worse time.

“I graduated with an art degree in the middle of an economic depression,” he said. After a few odd jobs — including as a hair salon clerk — he found himself back in costume production for a professional theater, 歌剧, 和西雅图的芭蕾. 这工作很吸引人。, 但他的梦想折磨着他, which led to his cross-country move and FIT degree.

流感大流行席卷时尚界

大约在2019年初, 经过几十年的时尚, 疲劳开始了, prompting Miller to think about a career change. 在他采取行动之前, the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York City hard, 到那个十月, as the city experienced a mass exodus, Miller’s role at Perry Ellis was eliminated.

Now living full-time in what was his second home in the Catskills, 和他的丈夫, 陶器艺术家Nathan Gwirtz, 米勒向bet亚洲365欢迎投注提出了申请. 剩下的就是历史了.

斯科特 Miller instructs a student during a 纺织科学 class in the Steel Plant. Photo by Nelson Echeverria/bet亚洲365欢迎投注.

“I was managing and mentoring people as a design leader, so teaching made sense to me,” he said. 虽然他开始帮助学生, Miller has found his own self-growth as a member of a community-based LGBTQ+ acapella chorus and taking up lap swimming in the McCann pool.

“I’ve started to live a fuller life,” he said.

读 米勒的生物 或者了解更多bet亚洲365欢迎投注 玛丽斯特的时尚节目.