All Work and All Play
Review of Moschino Fall 2025 Fashion Show
By Mark Wittmer
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
Reconsidered craft. Reconstructed house codes. Work as play.
Adrian Appiolaza’s Moschino continues to come further into focus. While it still could use some editing and luxury elevation, the excitement and reverence for the brand’s archive that was palpable in his first three collections is further into focus and given a sharper directional statement.
The collection begins from the theme of work: the physical process of fashion that is at once work and play. The opening looks riff on the idea of a garment in progress, with tailored jackets that feature visible basting stitches with needles still attached worn over a revival of Franco Moschino’s “mannequin” dress from 1992, which recasts the body as a dress form.
That idea of de- and reconstruction evolves across dresses collaged together from various other garments and fabrics, some of which – like the polka dots – we can recognize from other moments in the house’s history. In a new direction for the house, workwear is reconsidered with oversized washed denim constructions. The iconic smiley makes a return as well. One wow moment comes in the form of a cartoonishly voluminous puffer jacket in a floral nylon that both channels the opulent spaciousness of a fur coat while taking it an almost opposite aesthetic direction.
Guests were welcomed into the venue by a pop-up cart serving hot drinks along with Pepperidge Farm’s famous Milano cookies. The activation proved to be a teaser for an unexpected new collaboration; extending the brand’s penchant for playfully reclaiming logomania was a leather bag that aped an oversized bag of Milano cookies, worn with a chef outfit that was sculpturally reshaped into a dramatic dress. Cooking, like fashion, is work, craft, and art, and Moschino continues to cook up delight.
THE DIRECTION
As the game of musical chairs continues with a new announcement of a creative director’s departure what feels like every week, Appiolaza’s Moschino is a reminder that these things take time. While none of them have been flawless, every one of his collections has shown a great deal of creativity and potential. We hope the brand gives him the time and support to keep working towards synergy and something great.
THE QUOTE
Craft is a luxury, and luxury is relative – a Moschino mantra, it is expressed by a wealth of ideas, the value of a thought. Always, at Moschino, nothing is quite as it seems. Clothes here dress all genders, combining references from all walks of dress into a whole that cannot be considered binary, a reflection of our changed times.”
THE WRAP UP
The final looks of the collection, couture dresses constructed from trash bags, honed in on the collection’s message, while the final look – an oversized T-shirt with a globe graphic and the letters SOS for “save our sphere” – drove it him. Though the collection could be said to have a few too many ideas, every detail does drive back to the practice of finding creative solutions: using what we already have, be it the archive or the trash pile, to fashion a brighter world.
