Did You Catch The Anti-Trump Sentiment In The Moschino Show?

Like most Moschino shows, the brand's fall/winter 2018 presentation had a lot to unpack. The parade of 62 Jackie O. clones. The six "alien" models, covered in body paint from head-to-toe. And the fact that it all, per Vogue, was actually inspired by the conspiracy theory that JFK told Marilyn Monroe the "truth about aliens" (some theorists have gone as far as to say she was "murdered by CIA to stop her exposing Roswell UFO truth"). Yes, you read that right. But in classic Jeremy Scott fashion, that wasn't all.

In an interview with WWD, Scott explained: “I take [the conspiracy theory one step further and ask, ‘Was Jackie an alien? Was she an android? How did she endure the pain and grieving of the assassination? All the ridicule about her being such a haute, snotty Bouvier too good to be an American icon? How did she do that if she was actually human?’”

The result was a heavily '60s-inspired offering replete with pillbox hats, Mary Janes, and wrist-length gloves. But Scott's collection wasn't all Jackie and Marilyn. Yes, it was heavily influenced by the past, but it also nodded to what's happening now — particularly surrounding President Trump's decision to rescind DACA in America. It was subtle and completely unrelated to the whole JFK/alien conspiracy theory, but the anti-Trump, pro-Dreamer sentiment was there, the designer insists.

“I was thinking about immigration and illegal immigrants, or illegal ‘aliens’ when I was designing the collection,” Scott told Dazed. “I wanted to play with the idea of what an alien actually looks like. People in my country — some who have lived there since they were children, who have children of their own and are giving back to their communities, are getting evicted from the USA amidst fake news and hysteria. So I thought okay, I’m going to play a little on what an ‘alien’ supposedly looks like.”

It's an interesting and unexpected concept, one that takes the idea of aliens — creatures that are green and weird and made up and have nothing to do with immigrants — and turns it into (albeit slightly confusing) cultural commentary. And that certainly wasn't what we anticipated from a collection of Jackie O. copycats and models painted entirely in blue and purple. But for someone who's been so openly anti-Trump, perhaps that's what we should have expected to see from Scott this entire time?