In pictures: Moschino makes puppet show for presentation SS21

Due to the ongoing corona crisis, shows on location with real models remain a challenge. However, fashion brands are coming up with original alternatives: from online performances to a three-dimensional 'digital village'. But the prize for the most charming, and, admittedly a bit uncomfortable, goes to Moschino's puppet show, last Sunday during Milan Fashion Week SS21.

This is not a puppet show, this is a fashion show: Moschino's puppets for SS21

The presentation takes the form of a short film in which designer Jeremy Scott encounters a puppet show at a fair where a puppet version of himself is hoisting a model into a miniature couture dress. "Ah, I love puppet shows," sighs the real Jeremy, in which the little designer contradicts him: "This is not a puppet show, this is a fashion show!" A little door swings open in the décor, and behind it, there's the cream of fashion in the form of dolls. Anna Wintour is there, as well as Nina Garcia, Edward Enninful, Andrew Bolton and Vanessa Friedman.

The models, also puppets, show a collection of forty sophisticated looks, complete with doll bags and doll heels. The dolls were made in the studio of the late Jim Henson, the man behind the Muppets, Sesame Street and The Dark Crystal. Scott has worked with the studio before: in 2011 he dressed Muppets character Miss Piggy for the big Muppet movie.

Lovely as it was, the presentation had something alienating at the same time. Perhaps because the Moschino show also seems to be a critique of the traditional fashion show, which has been described by critics more than once as a 'puppet show': as a spectacle in which models and audience are 'played'. Seen in this light, the show fits in well with the oeuvre of Scott and Moschino as a brand that likes to magnify the bizarre emblems and mechanisms of the fashion world and thus bring them to attention.

Take a look at the images below:

Photo credits: Moschino SS21 via Catwalkpictures

This article was previously published on FashionUnited.nl. Translation and editing: Andrea Byrne