A ladylike hamburger skirt suit? A hotdog dress with a boule cape for bread? A chocolate sundae bustier with a fishtail skirt and a cherry hat on top? For pre? “Sometimes I forget that maybe I might be a little twisted, because it’s all so natural,” Jeremy Scott laughed, talking about his Moschino resort and men’s collections on a video call from Los Angeles. “It’s enthusiastic, it’s genuine, it’s pure. It’s maybe a little bit naïve. It sounds stupid to say that about oneself, but if I think about it in terms of everyone else… Yeah! It’s a pre-collection and I have a motherfucking hotdog dress!”
The inspired films that Scott has created for Moschino during the lockdown period may have been escapist, but that sensibility has always underpinned his work. Through the crisis, Scott evaded direct references to mid- and post-pandemic dressing, drawing instead on the power of optimism to see him—and us—through. There was, however, an irony to the way he elevated symbols of mundanity in this collection, which felt so symptomatic of our moment in time, when the idea of dropping into a diner or going out for a hotdog—those mid-century postcards of American lifestyle—seemed positively exotic.
For Scott, life is a musical, or at least it should be. After last season’s museum spectacular, Jungle Red, he wanted to work more with Karen Elson. Following Radio Redhead, Vol. 1, the cover album she released in December, she had asked Scott what covers he thought she should record for a potential volume two. Those conversations inspired Lightning Strikes, the all-American tribute to classic musicals that framed the Moschino resort and men’s collections, and culminated in a performance of the original song of the same title, which Elson recorded for an upcoming record of her own material.
The film, which was shot on the Universal Studios lot, stars Elson as a waitress, who dreams herself away from the hustle and bustle of her diner shift, with patrons, cooks, and fellow waitresses transforming into her backup dancers. She sings a cover of Chic’s “Everybody Dance” before she hits the street to an interpretation of “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc (with a 50-person dance sequence), and finally makes it to a theater where a pinball-themed performance crescendos into a music video for “Lightning Strikes.” “And then it was all a dream, like any good Hollywood movie!” Scott said.
Along the way, the designer made his own dreams come true, too. Through Moschino, the cinematic world Scott grew up with—his alternate, ideal universe—has materialized in real life, one Technicolor musical version of a waitress dress at a time. Between chorus lines, he somehow managed to propose a complete wardrobe, although it may not be for the faint of heart. Crayola-colored pinstripe tailoring paid tribute to Guys and Dolls, a series of contemporized, easy mid-century day dresses followed suit, and Scott’s pinball motif inspired a biker jacket bolero and cocktail dress garlanded with actual pinballs. On the men’s side, Scott translated his ideas into proposals for guys whose post-lockdown social calendar still hasn’t offered an opportunity to wear an ice cream cocktail dress with a (waffle) cone bra and human-sized sprinkles. Here, he adapted his themes into prints— comic books, pinball graphics, diner dishes—and emblazoned them on sporty suits, athleisure, and denim. But next time we’ll be reviewing a Jeremy Scott production, we won’t necessarily have to be thinking in terms of pre-collection wardrobes and retail.
When Moschino returns to the runway this September in New York, the designer said, “it doesn’t mean I’ll leave directing behind. I’ll just not be directing what’s known as ‘fashion shows’ anymore, but maybe directing what are actual films.” Is Scott directing a movie? “That’s as far as I’ll go right now. But, I mean, how could I not after this year of creating what I’ve created?” Will it be musical? “I mean… come on, of course! They’re infectious. They make you want to get up and dance and sing along, and that’s why it’s such a perfect vehicle for me to show my resort collection. That’s the spirit I always want for people: to lose their inhibitions, kick up their heels, and have fun.”
