Moschino revives the arty and rebellious spirit of the '80s in Milan

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Roberta HERRERA

Published
Jun 20, 2022

Moschino's return to the men's calendar in Milan did not go unnoticed on Sunday. As per usual, creative director Jeremy Scott staged a bold and colorful runway show, drawing on the fashion images and illustrations that have forged his fashion culture.
 

All the right ingredients for a fantastic lineup were present: bright colors, art, trompe-l'oeil, Latin-Hispanic style, military influences, and a dash of S&M. These elements have been featured in different menswear collections designed by Scott for Moschino, the Italian Aeffe-owned brand, and can now be found coming together this season in one single collection.

The common thread? The famous illustrator and fashion photographer of the 1980s, Tony Viramontes. The Mexican-American artists, who died of AIDS at the age of 31 in 1998, created an imaginary world with his images featured in magazines such as The Face that have inspired many designers as well as Japanese artists. Scott was able to draw from the artist’s archives to reproduce several of his drawings on clothing. Abstract paint strokes, sketched portraits, patterns and graffiti were seen in technicolor on jackets, suits, T-shirts, sweatshirts, and jackets. 

Scott smeared big pink brushstrokes on black trench coats, shirts, black pants, as well as accessories: hats, bags, boots… You name it! Some looks reproduced the creases and folds of the fabric in trompe l’oeil. Others seemed to have been hastily scribbled with colored markers, with fluorescent strokes on chic blazers and biker looks. Several black ensembles sported squares scribbled in white chalk.   

 
For one look, Scott was inspired by the Buffalo movement of the '80s, promoted in the pages of The Face by photographer Jamie Morgan and fashion stylist Ray Petri. This style, revolutionary for its time, encouraged a new sexy, strong, and provocative anti-establishment attitude, in which men wore skirts or strutted around in boxers and Dr. Martens.
 
This is the spirit that permeated Moschino's new collection, in which models wore chunky boots or tall black leather boots and seville hats or military berets on their heads, at times adorning their look with large leather belts or long black glamorous vinyl gloves.

Pleated skirts were sometimes layered over pants. Coats, on the other hand, appeared to be split in two, like a leather jacket paired with a wrap skirt made in the same material, or a waterproof jacket worn with a mid-length skirt cut from the same camel fabric to form a trench coat.