SDCC: Broadway’s Michael James Scott Talks Upcoming 10th Anniversary Her Universe Fashion Show

Fandom’s most eagerly awaited fashion show is coming back to Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC)!

The Her Universe SDCC show is scheduled for July 25 and will be hosted by the brand’s founder, Ashley Eckstein, and Michael James Scott, the actor currently playing Genie in Broadway’s “Aladdin.” The show is a promenade of geek couture, with custom-crafted designs featuring unmissable references to fandom-favorite movies, TV series, and more. 

2023 was Scott’s first time co-hosting the show. “It was so exciting. It was so special. It was so moving. It was so electrifying,” Scott tells The Pop Insider. “I don’t even think I was prepared for how incredible of an event it is.”

It isn’t an arbitrary choice to have one of Broadway’s most recognizable faces co-host the Her Universe fashion show. Scott and Eckstein have been friends since high school, and Eckstein herself is no stranger to show business, having voiced Ahsoka in the animated show Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

Scott says he prepares for the show with “prayer and fried chicken.” | Source: Her Universe

Eckstein is credited with helping serve women in the fandom community. | Source: Her Unvierse

Each year’s show follows a theme; last year’s was a celebration of Disney’s 100th anniversary, and the show featured looks inspired by characters from Snow White, Mary Poppins, The Muppets, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

This year’s show is presented by and themed after Mattel, the toy company behind Barbie, Polly Pocket, UNO, and more. “That brand is like, it’s iconic around the world. If you say Mattel, what that evokes, there’s such nostalgia. There’s such this inner child thing that it really is a beautiful message,” says Scott.

That beautiful message extends beyond the delight of possibly getting to see Hot Wheels and American Girl-inspired looks strut the catwalk. For Scott, the Her Universe fashion show has opened up a community he didn’t even know existed. 

“This was really my first introduction to this world. I actually really opened the doors to this world and invited me in,” he says. “There is this thing within geek couture, the fandom world, of just being outsiders and how these clothes become armor for some of us … So I think what was so beautiful is learning this culture and this world through that lens, because it’s something that I connect with as someone who has felt othered as someone who has … maybe felt like an outsider in the world.”

Eckstein has been credited with doing just that, celebrating and making products for an oft-overlooked sect of the geek community — and on top of serving the fandom girlies, the runway shows have tended to be diverse across the board to most accurately reflect the community of fans. 

The Mattel theme is significant enough, but this year’s fashion show is also notable because it marks one full decade of the existence of the Her Universe brand. “There is a big milestone here,” Scott says. “For anything to be around for 10 years is major.” It’s been a decade of making clothes for geeks and celebrating in SDCC style. To Scott, long-term friend of the company’s founder and co-host for the second year in a row, Her Unviverse’s longevity can be attributed to its acceptance: 

“To be able to come into a world where it’s like, come as you are, just come on in, that to me is what makes this really special, and that’s what makes this the thing that keeps going.”