Miniature Magic on the Runway
Fashion week and all of its attendant traditions have been largely upended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While some designers have chosen to show in person, with limited attendance, much of the focus has been on digital variations of the fashion show. So far, these have included everything from artistic, pre-recorded videos, to livestreams on Twitch, and even augmented reality. Technology, in many ways, has made it possible for fashion week to go on—and precipitate a shift towards more synchronous, inclusive events.
However, one particular designer chose a very different path, a nod to fashion’s past with an emphasis on handicraft.
American designer, Jeffrey Scott, is known for his kitschy, pop-culture inspired designs both for his eponymous line and for the Italian house, Moschino. In the past, his shows have been exuberant, colorful celebrations of the excesses of fashion, as much attended by “club kids” as the fashion intelligentsia. And yet, for Spring 2020, Scott went decidedly lo-fi. He enlisted the Jim Henson Creature Shop to create one-of-a-kind marionettes to display the latest Moschino collection. Each piece was created “in miniature” of the full sample size—and featured highly tailored pieces with decadent trims and visible corsetry. According to Scott, the looks were inspired by the Théâtre de la Mode, miniature “fashion dolls” that traveled the globe post-World War II in an effort to reinvigorate a decimated fashion industry.
But Scott went one step further, creating puppet versions of the fashion regulars who weren’t able to attend this season’s show in person. He included Vogue editors, Anna Wintour and Edward Enningful, among others, in their own custom Moschino looks. During the show, as Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” played as the soundtrack, the VIP guests even reacted and spoke one with another!
Scott’s magical production immediately went viral on social media; the irony of this not lost on anyone! And that was most certainly the goal. But Scott had an opportunity to share a piece of history that goes beyond the Théâtre de la Mode, all the way back to the 16th century, when European royal families would commission “fashion dolls” as a way to see, then copy, the dresses being worn in the French court. They were known as Pandora dolls beginning in the mid-1600s. In the 1700s, they became common to seamstresses, milliners and all kinds of fashion merchants, including Rose Bertin, seamstress to Marie Antoinette. They largely fell out of favor in the late 1800s when the first illustrated fashion magazines such as Cabinet des Modes, took their place.
And now in 2020, Scott’s Moschino collection is a reminder of fashion’s storied past; it’s a chance to focus again on the handcrafted details, the minutiae of design so easily overlooked or forgotten, as our attention moves so quickly from one show to another. It manages to capture—and hold—our attention.