“I married fashion and it has been a good wife.”-Franco Moschino

Franco Moschino, now known as fashion’s whimsical rebel, got his start in 1971 when he began working as a sketch artist for Giorgio Armani. He drew designs for publicity campaigns for the different ready to wear houses under the main line. He studied fine art in college and had dreams of becoming a painter but ended up going further down the path of fashion design when he started his first apparel construction career working as a designer for the label Cadette in 1977. He created simple sportswear and ready to wear women’s apparel and yearned for more creative license.

In 1982 he debuted his line in hopes of shaking up the fashion world. He detested the complacency and humdrum styles often hailed as “chic” and sought to create clothing based entirely on his own artistic expression. Many see Moschino as picking up where Schiaparelli left off and taking up the challenge of creating surrealist designs with expert skill. He took on the industry in his designs, criticizing blind consumerism with satirical designs like Rolex necklaces and mixing elements of fur and cheap materials. His anti-fashion designs had graphic messages including jackets stamped with the text “expensive jacket,” Minnie Mouse printed dresses, and suit jackets with knife and fork prints.