The ailing MTA could use a guy like Jeremy Scott. His Moschino show at the Transit Museum tonight was the best time anybody’s had on the New York subway in, well, just about ever. Negotiating the space was apparently a year in the process, but Scott knew it was the place to put on his Moschino pre-fall show. “The subway’s the quintessential New York backdrop,” he said backstage, “plus, it’s a mix of what I do: high/low, uptown/downtown.” New York’s streets often get compared to a runway, but the metaphor’s not quite right. The subway, with its cramped seating, tough doors, and interminable delays is a much better analogy. With its all-walks-of-life passengers, the people watching is nonpareil, too, though it’s perhaps not quite at the Moschino level.
Scott specializes in a sort of high-def hyperrealism. It was in full effect this evening as he worked his way through a subway car’s worth of New York subcultures to a soundtrack that included the familiar warning, “stand clear of the closing doors,” and an appearance by Showtime dancers. The Moschino frontman worked on the macro level: puffer jackets were super supersized, as were baseball caps, the house logo, and a gargantuan red backpack that seems destined to out-meme last week’s giant yellow Opening Ceremony tote (see @newyorknico if you missed it). But, really, no urban uniform was safe from Scott’s tweaking. Humble enough color-blocked track suits were converted into cocktail dresses and gowns, and otherwise staid trenches and leather jackets were finished with giant Moschino Couture labels. The portable music player of choice circa now is an iPhone 11—arguably they’re tools for shutting other people out—but boomboxes are much more visually interesting and they’re communal, too, so he put them on outerwear and hoodies.
There may be critics who say that that urban motif and others like it (the piles of gold chains, the Timberland-ish boots) aren’t Scott’s to use. He would respectfully disagree. As a Pratt student and a bright-eyed kid from Kansas he spent four years underground—the G and L trains were his lines—and he’s identified as “the people’s designer” ever since. The good feelings were right there on the surface: the subway is a beautiful thing, not least of all because it brings so many of us together. If you haven’t gone for a ride lately, give it a try.
