Jeremy Scott has had better days. He planned a big show for his latest Moschino collection smack dab in the middle of Bryant Park. The location had meaning, the collection was an homage to his early years in New York, circa the 1990s. Back in those days Bryant Park was the heart and soul of Fashion Week, only then there were giant tents. Moschino had no rain plan, and—wouldn’t you know it?—there was rain. Not torrents, but enough to make umbrellas all but obligatory for the audience.
“It’s very ladies who lunch, but it’s also nursery rhymes, so it’s baby lady,” Scott said backstage of his seasonal theme. “There’s also a wink to The Nanny,” he went on, because, “Fran Drescher wore so much Franco Moschino, iconic little suits that were such a signature of the brand and that moment.” Scott is the king of camp, so The Nanny angle had potential—who wouldn’t love a Drescher sighting? But baby lady? Power suits and kindercare are an unlikely combination. His tailoring was cut to seduce with cropped jackets and short, fitted skirts, so why the toy elephants, giraffes, and seals prancing across the quilted satin and tweed?
Scott has engaged with pressing issues in the past, like the time he made a cardboard collection that addressed the need for sustainable design or fall 2016’s Bonfire of the Vanities takedown of the thought police. He also knows how to throw a rip-roaring good time; remember, most recently, the Price Is Right show for fall 2019. The rain didn’t help, but this show missed on both fun and poignancy.
