The Italian Job: Moschino kicks off men’s fashion week in Milan

After a two-year hiatus from the men’s calendar, Moschino menswear is back on the catwalk. New artistic director Adrian Appiolaza also unveiled his 2025 women’s pre-collection. Football balls, fried eggs, smileys and heart-shaped bags - the designer used an array of ironic “Moschinisms” to spread the message of love and acceptance in his playful yet elegant collection. 

“Lost and Found”. That’s who Moschino’s new creative director Adrian Appiolaza named his first menswear collection, which he showed on Friday night. The catwalk space was filled with suitcases in all shapes and sizes as if we were travelling somewhere waiting for our next destination. For his second outing for the brand, which also included women’s pre-collection, Appiolaza wanted to reflect on the concept of getting lost and finding places you never knew existed physically or in your heart and in your mind. 

Moschino characters this season are looking for an escape, and they reflect on what they love in their everyday lives - this could be football matches, leaving cute post-notes for their colleagues, travelling the world on an aeroplane, enjoying croissants, bananas, pizza slices or fried eggs, - all of these daily symbols embellished in the most playful way the silhouettes in the collection. There were also iconic Moschino signatures - think smileys on cashmere sweaters and ties, and heart-shaped bags of all sizes from micro to XL like a briefcase to fit in everything you need during your day at the office. As Appiolaza explained in his show notes, hertas were omnipresent in his collection as a reminder that you should only do the things that you love.

One couldn’t imagine a Moschino collection without his favourite trompe-l’oeil fashion trick: thus the collection was filled with skirts made of men’s polos, shirts with “printed suits”, hats crafted from mini hats, and dresses featuring trench elements. 

Adrian Appiolaza is known for his passion for historic references - this time, he remastered the legendary “Survival Jacket” from SS1992, revamping it for the modern days with dozens of packers to carry everything one might need. He also used the iconic Moschino pact from the “Cheap and Chic” SS95 collection, which he printed on XXL t-shirts and also shredded to make fringes on jackets and coats. Why? To show that today's fashion doesn’t need a manifesto, there are no rules. Everything is possible. 

Courtesy: Moschino

Text: Lidia Ageeva