Moschino’s SS23 offered an ode to the late artist Tony Viramontes.
Moschino Creative Director’s Jeremy Scott delved into his first standalone menswear runway show for this year, using the brand’s signature witty and grandiloquent pop culture references as a starting point to create a playful yet infectious collection. Looking back, but resonating today more than ever, the series formed a colourful ode to the intersection of the New York art and club scenes of the 1980s, particularly the gay men’s community and its creative and social legacy.
The collection paid special tribute to the work of influential but little-known fashion artist and illustrator Tony Viramontes, whose style largely defined the fashion and music aesthetic of the decade.
Reimagining, and reinventing his world every time, Jeremy Scott dressed his men in skirts, making them even more masculine. True warriors of the drawn world, Jeremy Scott’s men walked the runway in colourful “uniforms”, like a Jeremy Scott army. In the end, a real-world general is ready to face violence, war crime and destruction.
Jeremy Scott collaborated with Viramontes and captured the motifs, faces and figures of the artist’s work. Based on these aspects, he created garments marked with pop colours. Painting is, in fact, Jeremy Scott’s statement point in this collection, as well as being a testament to the legendary artist and photographer Tony Viramontes.
Abstract images, bright but slightly subdued colours, bold doodles and expressive strokes covered Moschino’s iconic shapes and new silhouettes that played with length and height, such as shorts, pleated parodies, sarongs, and pants.
An expert assemblage of tailoring was brought by the selection of blazers, suits and coats that made their way down the runway. Sports jackets, shorts and military boots conveyed the pop feel associated with Jeremy Scott and Moschino.
“I wanted to shine a light on this brilliant creator,” said Jeremy Scott. “He may not be a household name, but Tony Viramontes is a force.”
Although inspired by the artist, Jeremy Scott continued to incorporate his trademark by combining bright colours to design an eccentric two-tone ensemble. This painterly accent made Jeremy Scott’s menswear collection look more playful and beautiful. This is once again proof that art and fashion can always be a combination that never fails.
