Franco Moschino Designer of clothes, shoes, women's underwear Date of Birth: 27.02.1950 Country: Italy

Biography of Franco Moschino

Franco Moschino was born on February 27, 1950, in Abbiategrasso, a small town near Milan, Italy. His path seemed to be predestined from birth. His father owned a ready-to-wear clothing factory, and it was expected that Franco would continue the family business. However, Franco, a talented but rebellious child, slightly altered his father's plans.

After finishing school, seventeen-year-old Moschino left his family, moved to Milan, and enrolled in the prestigious Brera Academy of Fine Arts. While still a student, he began working as an illustrator for various fashion magazines and advertising agencies. After completing his studies in 1969, he pursued illustration professionally, collaborating with brands like "Gap," "Linea Italiana," and "Harper's Bazaar." He then accepted an offer from Gigi Monti to work as a designer at "Basile," and shortly after, he caught the attention of Gianni Versace, who invited him to join his team. From 1972, Franco Moschino illustrated advertising campaigns for the renowned fashion house. This collaboration lasted for several years and established the young illustrator's reputation for his provocative and irreverent style.

Parting ways with Versace in 1978, Moschino developed his first line for the famous Italian fashion house Cadette, which lasted for 11 seasons. His revolutionary Cadette clothing collections defied fashion traditions and were unlike anything seen before. However, this was just the beginning. Working on these collections shaped Moschino's future design style. During this time, Moschino met Rosella Jardini, who had left her hometown of Bergamo to work with Nicola Trussardi. This encounter in 1981 would prove to be the most important in Franco's life. Initially, Rosella did not like him, stating, "To be honest, when I first saw him, he seemed like a boring fat guy. Later, he decided to lose weight and became more manly, which suited his character better." Moschino immediately offered her a job, and in the same year, Rosella became his assistant for the Cadette collection. She later moved to Bottega Veneta, where she was responsible for footwear and accessories. But a couple of years later, Franco and Rosella became inseparable until Maestro Moschino's death. Rosella became his friend, loved one, and collaborator, his muse. And she never regretted it. "With Franco, I entered an extravagant, wonderful, and strange world," Rosella said many years later.

Unbounded creativity and a thirst for independence led Moschino to start his own business. In 1983, he launched the Moschino brand. Creative duo Moschino-Jardini solidified in 1984. Rosella recalls, "It was a complete fusion. He could start a sentence, and I would finish it, and vice versa. But the creativity, sketches, and patterns were all him. He was an excellent illustrator. I took care of everything else: fabrics, accessories, sewing. If he wanted a dress called 'apple pie' or 'Christmas tree,' I turned his fantasy into a product." Moschino started with casual wear. In 1983, he presented his first women's collection in Milan. The fusion of Moschino's imagination and Jardini's practicality gave birth to an extraordinary collection that combined the incompatible: avant-garde and classic. However, the main element was irony, which would be present in all Moschino collections released under the brand.

In 1985, after the launch of his new line, Cheap and Chic, which continues to this day, the young designer's fame spread beyond Italy. In 1986, the first men's collection by Moschino emerged, followed by denim, footwear, lingerie, and evening dresses. Not to forget the famous Moschino fragrance line, launched in 1987. What is Moschino's style? Researchers and critics claim that fantasy and provocation are the cornerstone and "spice" of his creations, with provocation synonymous with democracy. Moschino himself said, "The scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of unrequited love" - this is my favorite quote from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 'One Hundred Years of Solitude.' When I create collections, I always sense the scent of bitter almonds. I cannot define my style: it is irony, eclecticism, intellectual freedom, philosophy, even theosophy. On the other hand, none of this is true. I have always lied. One day, I found myself in street theater, playing the role of Harlequin. I started creating garments that turned my patrons' wardrobes inside out. You know, these are the classic Chanel suit, the iconic Burberry trench, the traditional flamenco dancer's costume, the classic American leather bomber jacket. My creations are my dreams. Do you want to walk six feet above the ground? Here is a dress that will make you float two meters above the ground. Do you want a shadow suit? Here is an invisible dress. Or a dress that will make your blood boil? Yes, I have that too. I have everything! Just don't be afraid to wear these things. One fine day, you will have a blast when you accidentally leave the house wearing mismatched shoes. Let's go, and this is just the beginning! And if you want to know my style, my color, my name, you will not find them in stores. You can only recognize my creations by the scent of bitter almonds."

Each Moschino fashion show became a provocation. Each new collection challenged the norms of the fashion world and made spectators smile. The strict women's suits with plastic windmill buttons or tennis balls in place of buttons are worth mentioning. Or the t-shirt with the inscription "Chanel No. 5." Or the jacket with a fried egg on the pocket, a winter hat made of fur teddy bears, evening dresses adorned with dancing Mickey Mouse, and a strapless evening top with gold safety pins instead of fasteners. His annual advertising campaigns were also filled with irony and humor. Many remember the Moschino perfume advertisement (1990) featuring a mannequin in a golden corset sipping perfume through a straw, with the caption: "Only for external use!" And for the advertising campaign of the first Cheap and Chic fragrance, Moschino used the character of Olivia, a cartoon heroine who offered an original recipe for using the fragrance. This recipe embodies Moschino's essence. "Ingredients: One bottle of Cheap and Chic perfume, one or more attractive men (decide how mature you prefer), a pinch of charm, a handful of madness, laughter and love to taste, and a stroke of arrogance. Dosage: Minimum two people, maximum as many as you like. We recommend always having two to three spare bottles of Cheap and Chic perfume on hand. Skill level: Minimal. It's simple. Very simple. Apply the fragrance carefully to the most sensitive parts of your body: neck, wrist, décolleté, the tip of your nose, etc. Then walk past your man with a cold look. Ignore him. We advise slowly bringing your man to a boil. However, if you don't have time, you can speed up the process with a few additional provocative glances and fleeting phrases. You decide when the most favorable time is to devour him with your eyes or do something similar. Attention! This recipe is for connoisseurs only. Do not spray Cheap and Chic near excessively hot bodies! It's unsafe! Moschino is not responsible for the incorrect use of this fragrance. Spray perfume with caution - you may catch more men than you bargained for!"

Sometimes, product advertisements are accompanied by provocative slogans such as "Fashion shows can be hazardous to your health," "Life is multifaceted because it is fashion," "There is no such thing as good taste." Moschino completely denied good taste, even when talking about himself: "I am medieval quality and questionable taste." He occasionally created clever wordplay. In the late 1980s, he placed the sign "Ready to where?" in the window of his Milan boutique, pronounced the same as "ready-to-wear." In 1989, during the 20th Fashion Olympics, he interrupted his own fashion show, replacing it with a video clip called "Fashion Blitz."

Moschino's style took shape in the mid-1980s when the fashion world transformed into show business, and fashion shows became grand spectacles. These spectacles and other advertising campaigns gave rise to a phenomenon among consumers called "fashion victims." French philosopher Roland Barthes aptly described this phenomenon: "The fashionable woman is called Daisy or Barbara; she meets with the Countess de Moon and Miss Phipps; she works as the director's secretary, which does not prevent her from attending all the parties in town, from morning till night; every week she goes on a weekend getaway and is always traveling - to Capri, the Canary Islands, Tahiti; she only lives in a healthy climate, loves both Pascal and cool jazz."

It was against this fashion system that Moschino rebelled. He declared, "I deny a system that does not move. I stay away from a business that exploits human idiocy. This system is like a sick organism. It has too much salt and too much cholesterol in its blood. We are witnessing a real case of atherosclerosis."

Each of Moschino's collections aimed to challenge the system, but the pinnacle of this struggle was the Autumn/Winter 1990/91 collection titled "Stop the Fashion System." For this collection, the designer created the iconic image of a glamorous female vampire, serving as an allegorical representation of fashion. Her role in the show's script was described as follows: "Fashion tortures Things. Things are energy and freedom of creativity. They become victims of this flawless monster. At the end of the act, angels arrive and defeat Fashion."

Fashion was merely a means for Franco Moschino to express his views on politics, ecology, and society. Peace Mándala, No war, Love nature and nature love you, Save our sea, Safe sex - these are not just names of his collections; they represent his perspective on the world.

Franco Moschino passed away from cancer (according to other sources, AIDS) on September 18, 1994, in Milan. He was only 43 years old. After his premature death, the leadership of the company was transferred to Rosella Jardini, who struggled greatly with the loss of her beloved. However, together with the Moschino team, she decided to continue his work. "When Franco died, we couldn't close the House... We continued in order to honor the memory of our departed loved one. We didn't want his name to fade away, for the brand to lose its individuality and drown in commercialism. Since his personality and zest for life had a profound impact on all of us, we carried on," said Jardini. She considers herself "Franco's soul executor" and says, "More love, less work. That's what Franco called our recipe. And that's what the team, the same team as Franco's, is using now." Perhaps that is why the House of Moschino continues to thrive, and its new designs - evening dresses with a flirtatious waiter's apron labeled "Made in Italy," a tank top that reads "100% fat-free," a handbag shaped like a vinyl record, or one that, upon closer inspection, is simply a silk shirt with tied sleeves - all remain true to the spirit of its creator. Therefore, one can agree with Rosella Jardini, who once said, "I still think Moschino was simply a genius. I don't know how else to explain it: he's been gone for a long time, but he still hits the mark."