Roots. Adrian Appiolaza is the latest designer to talk up where he comes from backstage. In times of great insecurity, we turn to what we know, but this was also just a fun trip home. Though he was the most political of designers, Franco Moschino wore his politics lightly and Appiolaza follows that lead. An Argentinian by birth, he referenced its most famous native daughter, Eva Peron, and the other persons, places, and things that define the country, from its pampas gauchos to its rabid futbol fans to Mafalda, the six year old comic book character beloved for representing the social conscience of a nation.
None of this was exactly understated—why would it be at Moschino?—but it was just subtle enough not to clock it if you hadn’t read the press notes or, perhaps, visited Buenos Aires and witnessed its famous Obelisco for yourself. Of course, Moschino isn’t a label for Argentinophiles, it’s for lovers of exaggeration, irreverence, and eccentricity, all of which Appiolaza employed. A leather handbag full of ersatz churros, anyone? How about a cactus clutch? Or a piggy bank purse accompanied by pumps made from paper money? Mafalda would surely approve of Appiolaza’s apparent dig at fashion’s creeping corporatization.
But leaving aside the plentiful visual puns, there were some plainly terrific clothes here: A sylphlike dress printed with horse heads, billowy gaucho pants in a blue and white check worn with a neat, nipped waist coat whose lapels picked up the micro plaid, chunky hand-knit sweaters worn inside-out, and a well-tailored men’s jacket with 1940s lines that was the his part of his-and-hers tango outfits. Said Appiolaza: “When I graduated from Saint Martins my collectsion was inspired by Argentina, and I’ve always dreamed of having the possibility to bring back that idea and do it on a big stage.”
