When Jeremy Scott arrived in Paris two decades ago, he wasted no time subverting fashion norms and shaking up ideals of the local bourgeoisie—think the memorable fall 1999’s Pink collection, a runway romp in all shades of the color that riffed on traditional French staples like pussy bow blouses and cigarette pants with matching pink poodles as the ne plus ultra accessory.

The Kansas native, now based in Los Angeles and showing at New York Fashion Week, will mark his impressive 20-year career with his spring 2018 show on Friday. The anniversary provided the perfect opportunity to check in with the designer on his past, present, and future.

“I honestly always felt like fashion was just an interest I had growing up, but never something I saw as being a job,” Scott says as he reflects on his chosen career. “I loved to draw clothes and put outfits together for myself and my friends. I would study the history of fashion and be up on all the current and past designers when I was growing up.”

The intersection between music and fashion drew him in. “I would spend hours drawing costumes for pop starts I watched on MTV,” he recalls, “but at school, I was making ceramic pottery and handmade paper sculptures in art classes and preparing to study art history at NYU. It was around then that I followed a teacher’s suggestion to pursue fashion design and the rest, as they say, is history.”

His first show firmly put Scott on the fashion map, but his favorite memory is less about the clothes—car crashes-inspired with paper hospital gowns as the main material— and more about the moment after. His close friend Catherine hurried backstage, gave him a hug, and told him how much she loved the debut. The designer had been awake for over a week making patterns and sewing the clothes. He also dressed the models, and in the end, “I even had to take over hair and makeup as it was not being done the way I wanted it to be. I was physically and emotionally spent. When it ended, I just burst into tears at her compliment.”

Over the years, such compliments kept coming, but Scott’s fashion philosophy remained unchanged since that first show in a Bastille bar. “I want to make things that I think are cool—simple as that,” he explains. “The idea of what I think is cool will continually evolve and shift, but the reason behind what I am trying to achieve remains the same today.”

There are three designers he looks up to: Jean Paul Gaultier ( “He really set my imagination on fire”), Rudi Gernreich (“His relationship with Peggy Moffitt is still inspiring to me today”) and Franco Moschino (“Amusing and so clever, twisting the quotidian with the surreal!”).

The latter makes a lot of sense. In 2013, Scott took on the creative helm at Moschino, where he’s brought new life to the Milan house by putting the fun back into fashion. With collections that took on pop culture phenomena like McDonald’s and Barbie, Scott is considered a kindred spirit to the late Moschino and made the brand relevant for the Instagram-savvy generation. Designing Aeffe-owned Moschino also reinforced his personal fashion ethos.

“I think if anything, it only made me hold tighter to the feelings I had before,” he notes. “I dress a cool girl. She’s either in a band or going to see them in a concert. You can find her backstage or on stage. She’s the lead or she’s with the band but music and pop culture surround her.”

Scott’s career advice is applicable to more than just fashion hopefuls: “Follow your heart – it’s as old as time but as true as they come. You will find your success from the happiness of doing what you were put on this earth to do.”

If he had a chance to do it all again, he would without making a single change along the journey.

 “I have been so blessed in this lifetime,” Scott says. “Even the setbacks are gifts to help push us forward. I’d be rash to believe that doing anything differently would result in a better place than I am right now. I love my life, I do what I love, and I’m celebrated for doing that which I love. I’d be spoiled rotten to ask for anything more.”

Click through the slideshow for some of our favorite Jeremy Scott runway moments through the years.