Model dolls

Publish date 03-01-2022

by Elisa D’Adamo

Between the past and the present, the Moschino fashion house recently brought an ancient concept to the catwalk: clothes worn by "model dolls". Puppets 78 cm high, parading with clothes, accessories, make-up and hair, all like the most classic of fashion shows, but in a "mini doll" version. Jeremy Scott, creative director of the maison, presented his spring-summer 2021 collection entirely in miniature, during the Milan Fashion Week in September 2020.

An innovative choice that finds inspiration in the past: between the beginning of the eighteenth century and the end of the nineteenth century, in fact, the Court of France, the undisputed capital of fashion, used the so-called "Poupées de Mode" to make its innovations known. dolls made of wax, wood, rag, which were dressed in the latest fashion and sent to various European countries.

A dream: the ladies of high society could admire the fashion of Paris, choose fabrics, styles and accessories and go to their seamstress, where the dress was carefully tailored according to the needs of the customers. Model dolls were then gradually replaced by fashion sketches, later by fashion magazines and finally by traditional fashion shows with models. A blast from the past or a leap into the future?

The catwalk leaves many questions open about the symbolism behind this choice: it is only a historical reference or a way to protect the safety of models and professionals in times of pandemic or even a strong message was wanted to pass, more or less implicit, about the use of bodies treated as objects by an increasingly frenetic and spectacularized fashion system?

Elisa D’Adamo

NP Ottobre 2021

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