Moschino Fashematics

>> Back in February last year, I wrote a profile of Jeremy Scott in lieu of his debut for Moschino for Style.com’s print issue.  It was a result of some close following of Scott, observing him at work as well as interviewing him in depth.  The one thing that I will always remember from that experience is Scott’s candidness about how people see his work.  “My brain thinks in icons and working with things that universally bring people into it. I’m never going to be inspired by some obscure film, which isn’t to say I don’t enjoy that sort of thing. I just want to share my work with everyone.  I like to think of my work and the way people approach it in the same way people approach a Lichtenstein painting.  You can write a one-hundred-page dissertation about why he used comics. Or it could be like, ‘This is cute!’” 

And so it is that surface presented itself in abundance for his energy-charged menswear collection for Moschino, presented as part of this season’s edition of Pitti Uomo in Florence.  So much so that I got stuck in a Fashematics rut.  It was a hyper graphic, hyper literal and hyper period gleaning of the sort of references that I’m always going to be fond of – with one or two vaguely obscure films thrown into it for good measure, despite Scott’s protestations last year.  Fellini’s Casanova was the primary inspiration.  But Amadeus, Behind the Candelabra and of course Marie Antoinette come to mind.  Then throw in cycling jerseys, Formula 1 graphics and motocross gear – aka the kind of active wear that is ripe for a style crossover (didn’t I say motocross would happen?) and you have yourself a feasting of Baroque ’n’ Roll.  By ‘roll’, I’m referring to the wheels of speedy vehicles that skid on tarmac race courses.

As always, Scott’s visual treatment is always going to be a touch too brash for most – ‘clownish’ even.  Well I say clown away.  I’m down for the mashing up of Tour de France with 18th century frock coats, Mr Motivator with Napoleon or Liberace with Grand Prix – and everything awesome but the kitchen sink.  Wasn’t it Franco Moschino himself who once said: “”Good taste doesn’t exist.”