December 10, 2019 |
Take the commute but make it fashion. This was Jeremy Scott’s mantra for his first ever Moschino show in New York, which was held inside the vintage subway cars at Brooklyn’s Transit Museum. “I love this idea because it’s everything about New York. We always talk about high and low and the subway goes literally high and low: uptown and downtown and that mix is something that is quintessential to my aesthetic,” he said backstage. Nothing is more quintessentially New York than the subway and the theme allowed him to run riot with ideas. There were macro baseball hats, fanny packs and a meme-worthy giant rucksack as well as a diverse cast, playing every kind of New Yorker – from chi-chi lady in her Upper East Side tweeds all the way to the working woman wearing a belted mac and pumps and the boom-box kids in their exaggerated streetwear slung with supersize gold chains.
In L.A. where Scott is based, people use cars to telegraph their status and identity. “But in New York it’s you,” he said, referencing the importance of street style and fashion expressionism to the city. He studied fashion in New York and remembers revelling in that freedom. “It was a different fashion show every day everything from the 1800s to the 1980s,” he said of his student looks. “In Kansas I was hated on for how I dressed but in New York people would say ‘Wow, I love your parasol.” With that in mind everything was exaggerated – from the proportions of a boom-box print tracksuit to the bedazzled macro Moschino name plates and clutches shaped like Bic lighters and Slurpy drink cups.
“Fashion has to be fun. There is enough stuff in the world – it has to bring joy. Oh my god, I sound like Marie Kondo,” he said of his feel-good fashion philosophy. The reaction he always aims for? “I want that! I’ve never seen it like that! It speaks to me! With everything I design, I want to put a smile on peoples faces and make people dream.” Freedom, self-expression and fun are the values at the heart of his Moschino world. This is one train you don’t want to miss.
