Playful riffs on consumer culture we expect from Jeremy Scott at Moschino. Thoughtful comments on our mobile phone-obsessed age not so much. After all, on every front row seat tonight was a gift bag with a Moschino-branded iPhone 6 cover. But a critique of our social media-mad world was at least partly what Scott was after with tonight’s collection of life-size paper doll clothes. Setting up for a Facebook Live video afterward (filmed on—what else?—a cellular phone), he said, “Before too long, this face-to-face conversation is going to feel awkward.” Meaning we’re getting awfully used to seeing the world in 2-D. Thinking about that fact gave Scott the concept for what turned out to be his cleverest Moschino show yet.
Paper dolls, for those of you who grew up digital, are heavy stock paper figures with separate clothes also made out of paper. As Scott alluded to in his press notes, they predate Barbie, an early reference of his at Moschino, by 150 years, give or take. The trompe l’oeil technique he employed to render three-dimensional clothes flat also has a long history. The Italian label Roberta di Camerino was doing it back in the 1950s and ‘60s, and earlier this season Thom Browne took up the idea himself, transforming his quirky tailoring into flat zip-in-and-go dresses. By our reckoning, Scott might be the first designer to extend the metaphor and add the white folding tabs. We didn’t get a chance to ask if they’ll make it all the way onto the selling floor, but Moschino fans are so intense (there is no tougher door in Milan—gripe, gripe), it wouldn’t surprise us if they did. Ditto the kitschy bodysuits and evening dresses that produced the illusion of deep cleavage and/or six-pack abs.
The in-jokes kept coming. Franco Moschino’s iconic teddy bear coat was transformed into a 2-D trim on an evening number, and Scott’s logo-belted black leather body-hugger was printed on a boxy oversize white T-shirt. Grand evening gowns gave him the most room to play, and it was remarkable how convincingly he was able to make their flat planes mimic voluptuous bows and ruffled trains. The irony? They’ve likely been clogging your phone’s Instagram feed all night long.
