While the fashion world is still mourning the sudden and premature death of Davide Renne — the Italian talent who Moschino had appointed to succeed Jeremy Scott at its creative helm — the brand released its pre-fall collection in tandem with the men’s fall 2024 lineup.
Developed by the in-house design team, the collection mirrored the previous efforts since Scott’s exit by celebrating the work of late founder Franco Moschino in the year that marks the 40th anniversary of the brand, while acting as a placeholder before a new creative chapter begins.
If there’s little visibility on what’s ahead for the brand, here the design team looked back to explore who the original Moschino woman was, nodding to the different characters the founder used to portray in his work. In the pre-fall lineup, the rockabilly type in a leopard minidress and chunky creepers stood alongside the seductive night owl wrapped in a lace catsuit, while the Ladies Who Lunch donning LBDs with golden details coexisted with those opting for relaxed tailoring.
Five archival pieces were reissued to reaffirm the brand’s identity, including the opening look of a matching teddy bear-covered coat and headpiece; a ladylike cropped jacket trimmed in pearls with the Peace symbol on the back; a gown loudly reading VIP, and a coat listing the brand’s key ingredients, which translate from Italian into “fabric, yarn, intelligence, practicality, dignity, good taste.”
Elsewhere, other wordplay marked unfussy separates while a barcode pattern decorated a cropped T-shirt and a shirtdress for a casual and more elevated effect, respectively. Fringes were a recurrent motif across the women’s and men’s collections, adding movement to denim or leather jackets, trenchcoats and white shirts.
Other details injected a dash of humor into male wardrobe staples, such as a little lipstick mark popping on the collar of a pristine shirt and VIP lettering on the front of a double-breasted suit or around the V-neckline of a preppy knit.
At the time of his appointment, Renne penned a letter in which he recalled how Moschino dubbed his design studio “la sala giochi — the playroom,” underscoring the brand’s sense of joy and foreshadowing a shared attitude that unfortunately the fashion crowd and the brand’s fans will never be able to witness. This sense of play only partly trickled in this collection, which offered straightforward and versatile pieces but overall lacked that irreverent force that set Moschino apart.
