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You have to cling to appearance, desperately. Although Nietzsche was referring to the Greeks and not the inhabitants of New Jersey, the maxim also applies to Jeremy Scott, a designer often accused of having vulgarized Moschino, of being too “superficial” for fashion. Apart from the fact that the depth of fashion would be news, the “surface” – and this is not news – is where daily life takes place, where even a McDonald’s has its rough, tragic poetry.
For ten years, Jeremy Scott had one idea better than the other, at the end of which he declared: “These ten years at Moschino have been a wonderful celebration of creativity and imagination. I am so proud of the legacy I leave behind. I would like to thank Massimo Ferretti for the honor of leading this iconic house. I would also like to thank all my fans around the world who have celebrated me, my collections and my vision because without you none of this would be possible.” And these years have really been a ride in the inexhaustible imagination of a designer who loves pink who has transformed each of his fashion shows into a happening and who has always had delightfully superficial, never banal ideas.
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Thus, the news of the abandonment of Moschino by the “designer of the people”, after ten years, saddened many. Though we can’t wait to hear what awaits you. Chanel, I hope. Or so Karl Lagerfeld would have it. I have always adored Jeremy Scott, for the fun and intelligence he has given to the “fashion people” over the years and I am convinced that, during the terrible months of the lockdown, he invented the most enchanting fashion show. Scott is also the favorite stylist of pop stars. He designed Britney Spears’ futuristic dress in “Toxic” and Katy Perry’s “beach ball” at the Super Bowl, with dancing sharks; but above all, he reinvented Moschino, an irreverent brand that flourished in the 1980s and had been in decline since its founder, Franco Moschino, died of AIDS-related complications in 1994, at the age of forty-four.
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At the Jeremy Scott fashion shows in Milan, you found Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, a functioning car wash and a “bonfire of the vanities”, where the bonfire was not Tom Wolfe’s but the real one of Renaissance Florence, when religious fanatics burned books, cosmetics and works of art. On that occasion, the models danced down a Persian carpeted runway wearing charred dresses and a typical Moschino fan wrote on Instagram: “you saweeeeeeeeee thisssss omggggg”. Ken Downing, the fashion director of Neiman Marcus, told the New Yorkers: “The ability to take a brand that was so deeply rooted in an 80s sensibility and bring back the humor, the quirkiness of manufacturing and take the ironic chic of the brand and reinvent it for a new client was nothing short of brilliant.”
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Once, Jeremy Scott wrote a manifesto, on the Guardian, where he said a designer should be a “communicator,” adding, “Nobody likes to be indoctrinated.” Per Kim Hastreiter, editor of paper, “Jeremy is not your average fashionista. He is a person of culture ”.
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Like Andy Warhol, Scott is drawn to American consumer culture. His obsession is not the “silhouette” but the “icon”. At Scott’s debut show for Moschino in 2014, a model wore a Chanel jacket: bouclé wool, contrasting trim. Too bad Scott had carried it inside a McDonald’s: ketchup red, yellow trim and a faux-Chanel bag with a McDonald’s “M” in the shape of a heart. It will not be easy to replace it. The populace of the web has already elected Giuliano Calza as papal successor, others are hoping for Alessandro Michele – who seems to be headed to Paris – still others for the improbable Christian Cowan. But also Paris Hilton and – why not? – Robert Wun, emerging talent of the Couture camp.