Moschino: "Rock Me, Amadeus"

Attention, all Gen Xers and old Gen Ys: On a scale of 1 to 10, how big an impression did the video for Falco's novelty single "Rock Me, Amadeus" make on you, as a kid? On the evidence of Jeremy Scott's latest Moschino menswear collection, Falco's club-kid take on the Baroque made a pretty strong impression on him.

 At any rate, it was virtually impossible not to look at the clothes on the Moschino runway in Florence this evening and not cue that music in your head.

Moschino menswear was the marquee special guest at Pitti Uomo this season. And if you believe Scott, the Baroque-ness of this collection owed more to that locale and the atmospherics of its aristocratic patrimony than it did to, you know, Falco.

The rich embroideries, ruffles, quilted materials, and metallic jacquards on the Moschino runway were culled from history's archive of decadence; even today, a pale-pink-and-gold wallpaper pattern brocade still signifies. The fabric summons, unbidden, visions of Versailles. Here, Scott used it in a tux.

Some of Scott's looks in this collection came off—to be frank—a little clownish. The way to explore a more-is-more theme is with a sense of specificity and some circumspection. Scott seemed, in many instances, to be gilding the lily by piling excess on top of excess.

To wit, the look that comprised a clever motorcycle jacket with zip-off tails in red and yellow wallpaper jacquard, a contrast cummerbund in the same jacquard, a magnified fleur-de-lis print polo, a bright cravat, and patchwork-patterned bike shorts.

 Ai! Scott's more measured looks had a bit more snap—although the measured-ness was relative, to be sure. A shirt and jeans in a crystal print, for instance, would hardly qualify as "minimal."

Ditto an anorak printed in a Moschino logo repeat and embroidered with sprightly bouquets of flowers. The real commercial appeal of this collection, though, was to be found in its Formula 1-themed passages.

Scott purloined the race car graphics and adapted them into tailoring jeans and sweats; you'd have to know more about Formula 1 racing culture than this reviewer does to see a connection between Ayrton Senna's aesthetics and those of Louis XIV, but anyway, there it was. And there, too, were a handful of women's looks, mainly bouffant jacquard or brocade dresses that Scott had scrawled with cartoonish graffiti in order to contemporize the looks.

This is the kind of thing Giles Deacon can do with his eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back, and in comparison, Scott's gloss felt a little pro forma. Current Moschino campaign star Katy Perry, seated in the front row, may have felt differently, though.