Jeremy Scott drew upon a source of inspiration that’s an old-time favourite for Moschino Resort 2022: old Hollywood.
In his own words the collection is “all about song and dance.” And of course he presented it accordingly, with “Lighting Strikes, the Moschino Musical” a short musical number starring her muse, Karen Elson, and filmed at the legendary Universal Studios lots.
He stated: “I wanted to take the excitement, the glamour and the whimsy of all the old Hollywood musicals and use them as a vehicle to show this collection (…) few things make me happier than when style and cinema collide.”
You can see the whole piece here:
The whole display pays homage to the most paradigmatic Americana elements, starting with a classic Diner scene where Karen Elson is a waitress. She walks to the jukebox and everybody joins to the sound of Chic’s “Everybody Dance”. Elson and all the other waitresses are wearing a colourful Moschino-worthy version of the typical uniform, a rainbow-colorblocked shirtdress, while the customers are outfitted in Moschino branded varsity jackets and “M” monogram cardigan and knit skirt sets. But that’s not all, there’s a jacket with sunny-side up eggs, a hat shaped like a stack of pancakes and you’ll see salt and pepper shaker high heels dancing on the diner counter, ”They have real crystals that shake when you walk,” Scott said.
Then we enter into a dream sequence, Elson puts on the brightest piece of the collection, a pink sequined dress, and we get to see much more food-inspired high-fashion. We are talking about a whipped cream bustier with a chocolate milkshake skirt, a hot dog pencil dress with bun cape and a rather familiar look, the wearable burger that according to Scott is actually the same burger Katy Perry wore to the 2019 Met Ball. “We put it back into use one more time.”, he said.
Next, the camera follows our protagonist out of the diner to the streets, where she encounters models wearing different looks as she walks down alleys and corners. She’s singing her own version of Lipps Inc’s “Funkytown” and showing us her best disco moves, before joining a large crowd that dances along with her. The ensembles for this sequence include bright coloured gangster pinstripe suits, mid-century day dresses, colourful and comic book-printed trench coats and jackets, and a wide variety of hats that have the retro touch but don’t point to a specific decade. Scott explained that he wanted to create a fantasy world, so he took notes and brush strokes of many eras.
For the grand finale Elson enters a movie theater, where we find her wearing a metallic fuchsia leather dress with a matching cropped biker jacket, both garlanded with contrasting coloured pinballs. The lights go flashing and she sings her own original song, titled as the short “Lightning Strikes”, as performers in printed beachwear gather around her and dance.
As we anticipated, yet another collection comes to bring a joyful, colourful number to get our spirits up after the pandemic. Jeremy Scott knows all about letting his imagination run wild, and bringing optimism into the picture alongside his daring surrealness that continues to surprise us and invites us to have fun with fashion. “I just think of musicals as being joyful and uplifting and buoyant,” said the designer in his statements before the show. “And I love that they’re whimsical and they’re a little absurd.”
“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!”
See the complete lookbook in Mochino’s website.
