Supermarket sweep! As usual Moschino’s Rossella Jardini and and menswear designer Bill Shapiro brought a healthy dose of fun and frivolity to Milan fashion week – eschewing the imposing palazzos and ancient piazzas by serving up their S/S collection in an unassuming, if colourful, Italian hypermarket, the models weaving their way between the fish counter and cleaning produce. Some serious effort had gone into this Dale Winton-ready backdrop, shown by the many cans and bottles covered with personalised Moschino marketing slogans, ‘Buy 2 get 1 free’ and ‘The funniest brand in the world’. Of course, in Moschino tradition the logos, emblems and motifs extended to the clothes (the brand made its name on a partiality for cheeky and inventive sloganing). Last season’s head-to-toe brick print had been replaced by reproductions of canned goods and store-ready packaging, accompanied by a soundtrack that resembled a robotic Tesco stocktake, ‘The chicken! The broccoli! The beans!’. A comment on the pace of modern consumerism? Perhaps.
‘Fresh!’, read many of the pieces. Not really – this was usual play for the brand; a few witty statement prints, followed up by some run-of-the-mill suiting. This season’s tailoring came light, in sorbet pastel hues. If you’d been offered a trolley dash there were certain hidden goodies to be picked up, including some rainbow patched trainers that felt current and some clean stripe cotton pyjama pants. While these few understated goodies may boast selling promise, it’ll be interesting to see how many of the printed pieces actual make it to the shop floor from, well, the shop floor. One can only assume that much of it will stay right there in the bargain aisle.
