Review: At Milan Fashion Week, Moschino spins the wheel with game-show glam and wins big
Following memorable Thursday collections from Max Mara and Prada, Moschino closed out the day with a game-show-inspired, camp-filled women’s collection presented against a “The Price Is Right”-style backdrop complete with home appliances, a branded slot machine and a cherry-red Ferrarri on a rotating dais, which easily made for the most entertaining show of Milan Fashion Week. (Though Gucci’s mask-play runs a close second.)
Colors were Technicolor bold, silhouettes ran from super-casual tracksuits to awards-show-worthy gowns, many in exploded prints that aped household-product packaging (because no one goes home empty-handed!), while others referenced the high life that comes with jackpot-level winnings; gold, cash, jewels and coins.
The on-the-money motif included gilded dollar signs that studded cropped, quilted black leather jackets and pants, denim skirts and trucker jackets and sleeveless cocktail dresses), allover gold and silver coin prints in free fall across one-shouldered dresses with outsized flowers at the shoulder, slot-machine prints on ruffled, one-shoulder dresses and capri pants, and colorful game-board prize-square prints that included winnings such as “sports car,” “$3,000 + one spin,” and “Moschino shopping spree.” The most memorable version of this print came by way of a slim-fitting, floor-length dress with a half-dozen panels rimmed in blinking LED lights that blinked on and off as the model walked the runway. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!
A trio of looks — the biker jacket and zip-front mini skirt that opened the show as well as a ruffled strapless mini dress and a slouchy track suit — were printed with designs rendered in the watery shades of green familiar to holders of U.S. currency. The dollar sign trailed by seven digits across the chest hammered home the visual pun you wish you’d thought of first: Yes, the models looked like a million bucks.
The collection wasn’t just madcap Moschino, though. There were plenty of pieces that exuded straight-up glam (if, perhaps, a daytime TV version of it): draped silk jersey dresses with jeweled necklines (some with jeweled cut-out panels) and glittery gold rib-knit gowns and dresses with butterfly bows at the hip and décolletage.
The evening’s most memorable look — in a show full of them — included a sparkly green mini dress worn with an immense, cape-like garment that jutted out nearly three feet on each side of the model wearing it. As she came down the runway, her adornments became instantly recognizable. There was a waterfall of cubed carrots and baseball-sized peas on her right, a landslide of mashed potatoes — complete with an iPad-sized butter pat — to her left. As she passed by, a Salisbury steak the size of a truck-tire inner tube could be seen trailing behind in a murky brown sauce. Each foodstuff was separated by strips of silver metallic fabric that also fashioned the shoulder straps that kept the whole affair aloft.
That’s right, Moschino creative director Jeremy Scott sent a TV-dinner dress down the Milan Fashion Week runway. It was so campy / crazy and over-the-top delicious — not to mention nostalgia-inducing for grown-up kids of a certain age — we have to believe it’ll turn up on a high-profile red carpet before year’s end.
We’d almost be willing to wager a million-dollar track suit.
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