Moschino's fun-loving Cheap & Chic label has finally earned its slot on the Milan schedule and yesterday staged its first catwalk show. It was a witty, exuberant debut. The late Franco Moschino was famed for his tongue-in-cheek humour, which continues to drive the collection.
The show romped through some of his favourite themes, dipping into military looks, Scottish tartans and naive peasant girl dresses with headscarves. The military influence was more Hot Lips than GI Jane, with sexy lingerie and babe dresses in candy pink or ruffles of camouflage chiffon worked into quirky combinations with olive green coats and multi-pocketed bomber jackets.
These were slung with cartridge belts to arm a girl with a choice of lipsticks.
The mainline Moschino collection was less coherent than the Cheap & Chic line, hopscotching between the racecourse and rodeo for ideas, topping them with stetsons and jockey caps.
The academic theme was best, with its long black coats and suits with crisp white shirts and black ties, or the sweet schoolgirl's apron dress that opened the show with a Scottie dog motif on the skirt and jewelled dog-collar belt.
If madcap Italian design duo Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana ever tire of the fashion treadmill, they would be snapped up by movie-makers for the evocative Hollywood settings they create for their fashion shows.
On Thursday they showed their autumn collection in an 18th-century house filled with sumptuous Victorian orientalism - works of art and furniture - but with the comfortable atmosphere of a home that is lived in.
The stage set the mood for a collection inspired by the artistic eccentric Tamara de Lempicka, the Paris-based German painter of the early 20th century.
This avant-garde eccentric had an unorthodox approach to dress, according to Dolce and Gabbana.
Wearing striped lurex vests with tweed hacking jackets and plus fours, topping the outfit with a rhinestone-studded beret and a single large hooped earring, she would fling a bright shearling coat with pinstripes of coloured diam ante over brocade trousers and pin a rose corsage to her lapel.
She was nothing if not flamboyant, tossing a vibrant pleated scarf over a dashing pinstripe trouser suit, adding a jaunty be ret. She was a woman of glamour and style, but she created an intriguing and individual look.
Colourful, finely pleated dresses revealed the lingerie underneath, and pretty floral pin shirts and bright hosiery came with a camel corduroy country outfit.
Stefano Gabbana described the look as extravagant, and fashion does not come more extravagant than the beautiful Swarovski crystal dresses created specially for the show.
Tagged at between $28 to $30,000, we are talking the price of French haute couture here - and this is a ready-to-wear collection. However, with clients like Whitney Houston, surely Dolce and Gabbana won't be short of takers.