March 21, 2023 |
There are few designers who can leave you with a big cheesy grin quite like Jeremy Scott. The American designer, who was creative director of Moschino for 10 years, collided tongue-in-cheek nods to excessive consumerism with pop cultural camp, revitalising the Italian brand through the 2010s. Announcing yesterday that he was leaving the Italian fashion giant, we look back at some of Scott’s knockout Moschino catwalk moments over the years.
AW14
Would you like a side of fries with that? Making his Moschino debut in February 2014, Scott stuck a firm middle finger up to fashion purists by dedicating his first catwalk collection to a series of US pop cultural heavyweights – from SpongeBob SquarePants and Budweiser, to McDonald’s golden arches. Deliciously camp and undeniably clever, the collection ushered in Scott’s witty takes on Franco Moschino classics.
SS15
A whole decade ahead of Greta Gerwig’s live action Barbie film, Scott paid tribute to the toy box staple with a collection that saw his models transform into the Mattel icon. Their peroxide blonde up-dos were anchored by sugary pink leather jackets, skirt suits and highly shoppable pieces stamped with Moschino’s logo now in Barbie’s typeface, as seen on Charlotte Free who roller-skated down the catwalk. She’s a Barbie girl, in Moschino’s world.
AW16
Jeremy Scott’s Moschino girl was hot. So hot, in fact, that her dresses actually burst to flames on the catwalk. This season saw models parade across a carpeted catwalk in delightfully dishevelled evening frocks that looked as if they’d been saved from a house fire. (Anna Cleveland’s dress actually smoked as she came down the runway.) The collection also featured jumpers that pastiched Marlboro Red cigarette packaging and a a Chandelier turned into a frock (Katy Perry, a religious Jeremy Scott fan, would famously wear a similar dress to the Met Gala in 2019).
SS17
Scott dove back into the dress-up box for SS17, a collection that reimagined his Moschino muses as paper dolls. A commentary on our growing smartphone dependency – “seeing the world in 2D”, as the designer put it – he applied trompe l’oeil effects that made 3D clothes appear flat. Equipping amped-up evening dresses, logo tees and bikinis with white folding tabs, it was as if these stellar pieces were cut-and-pasted from one model to the next.
SS18
Say it with flowers, say it with Gigi. Jeremy Scott transformed the supermodel into a human bouquet for his SS18 collection, which also featured petal-laden body suits and a series of looks that gave delicate ballerinas a biker girl edge.
AW18 MENSWEAR
What’s your safe word? Scott’s AW18 men’s collection was possibly the designer’s most sexed-up Moschino outing. Models came in gimp suits, leather budgie smugglers and bondage gear meshed with deconstructed tailoring. On the catwalk, Scott’s lads looked like they’d been pulled out of a Tom of Finland illustration.
AW19
Show me the money! Scott tapped into his love for all American game shows for his AW19 catwalk. The Price Is Right met Wheel of Fortune as models came in big ol’ Dynasty wigs, wearing tracksuits drenched in dollar bills, luxe, faux fur chubbies and a TV dinner transformed turned into a cape, complete with sequin peas.
RESORT 2020
Here’s Jeremy! For the brand’s Resort 2020 collection, Scott took the fashion pack on a trip to Universal Studios as he ghoulishly elevated classic Halloween costumes. From zombies, mummies and witches, through to devils, models and vampires, the end result was scarily good.
SS20
The Moschino girl got her Picasso on with this collection, as Scott turned to the Spanish artist’s most famous works to inspire his SS20 outing. Dresses came in painterly swirls, sometimes resembling guitars, sequinned doves and off-kilter female nudes.
Pre-Fall 2020
All aboard the L train! Scott held his pre-fall 2020 collection inside a series of vintage subway cars at the Brooklyn Transit Museum. A tribute to the styles that populate the city that never sleeps, models came wearing XXL baseball caps, swollen puffer jackets and blinged out Franco Moschino suiting. Uptown met down downtown in a campy collision of Big Apple icons.
AW20
Let them eat cake, and wear it too! A fusion of Moschino classics and 18th century courtly fashions, for AW20 Scott paired powdered wigs with panniered frocks, cropped biker jackets and one dress that resembled a tiered cake. It was total Marie Antoinette finery on acid!
SS21
In the thick of the Covid pandemic, Scott turned to the legendary Jim Henson to create an elegant puppet show that recalled classic French couture salons. Watched on by puppet versions of Edward Enninful and Anna Wintour in the front row, out came doll-sized versions of elevated Moschino gowns, proving to be one of the pandemic’s most joyous digital fashion moments. “My biggest desire is to put a smile on people’s faces,” said the designer at the time.
AW22
Returning to Milan after a pandemic-induced break, Scott’s AW22 collection saw the designer turn everything but the kitchen sink into surreal eveningwear. Chairs became fascinators, chest of drawers morphed into minidresses and cutlery populated slick, tailored jackets. Set to the 2001: Space Odyssey soundtrack, Scott took his bow in a pastiche of the red space suit that appears in the film. “As war raged in Ukraine, Scott conjured a blissful bubble of escapism and yet the weirdness of it all – the familiar made strange – rang true,” wrote 10’s Editor Claudia Croft at the time.
SS23
“Inflation – it’s the scourge of our times, but shoot it through Jeremy Scott’s Moschino prism and something joyful happens,” wrote Croft of Scott’s penultimate Moschino collection. Throughout, he dotted Franco Moschino suiting and gowns with inflatable hearts and question marks, gracing the collection’s standout looks with clusters of blown-up cartoon characters – making for one of the season’s standout moments.
AW23
Scott’s final bow was as rebellious as ever. Moschino’s AW23 collection saw the designer clash aristo-punk spirit with surrealism, inspired by the work of Salvador Dalí. With oiled-up mohawks, trippy skirts suits and bedazzled ball gowns, the collection channelled ladies who lunch, if said ladies were Siouxsie Sioux fan girls. It made for an explosive end to an incredible 10 years.
Top image: Moschino AW23, photography by Christina Fragkou.
