Franco Moschino exhibition at the Forte di Bard in Aosta

The exhibition space will be transformed into a veritable manifesto of creative freedom and open criticism of fashion conventions. Welcoming the public is a forty-metre-long photographic gallery that immediately transports visitors into the designer’s world. The exhibition unfolds across six themed rooms, punctuated by neon light installations. In a continuous flow between art and fashion, the historic photographs by Stefano Babic, Sergio Caminata and Stefano Pandini engage in dialogue with the spectacular nature of the fashion house’s legendary shop windows, its provocative advertising campaigns and a carefully curated selection of original vintage garments. To enrich the experience, room by room, there will be video contributions featuring interviews with long-standing friends, colleagues and artists (produced by Alberto Clementi, Tommaso Basilio and Pier Paolo Pitacco): their stories reveal Moschino’s most human and radical side: from his origins in the Po Valley (Abbiategrasso) to his outrageous catwalk performances, his surprising advertising campaigns, and the profound seriousness of his political and social messages.

Franco Moschino was born in Abbiategrasso, in the province of Milan, on 27 February 1950. He died in 1994, aged just 44, of AIDS, although at the time it was reported that the cause had been a heart attack linked to cancer. From a young age, he showed a strong passion for art and, in 1967, he enrolled at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan with the intention of becoming a painter. To support himself through his studies, he began working as a freelance illustrator for magazines and fashion houses, discovering the world of fashion. He subsequently graduated from the Istituto Marangoni and, in 1971, began working as a designer for Gianni Versace, a collaboration that would last six years. From 1978 onwards, for eleven consecutive seasons, he designed collections for the Cadette brand, and 1983 marked a turning point: Franco Moschino founded his own fashion house, Moschino Couture!, through the company Moonshadow. His first collection – womenswear – was an instant success, attracting the attention of the press for its playful style and its ability to break the industry’s rules. In 1984, the second womenswear collection, presented whilst fashion shows were still held at the Fiera di Milano, confirmed the success of the previous season, and the following year saw the launch of the first menswear collection, presented in the halls of Palazzo Reale in Milan. In 1986, the Moschino Jeans womenswear line was launched; the following year, the fashion house presented its first fragrance; and in 1988 came ‘Cheap and Chic’, a youthful and affordable line that reflected the designer’s desire to make his creativity accessible to a wider audience. 1989 was a pivotal year: the first Moschino boutique opened in Via Sant’Andrea, in Milan’s luxury shopping district, whilst the second, in Via Durini, also in Milan, was designed specifically for the Cheap and Chic and Moschino Jeans ranges. From 1991 onwards, Franco Moschino decided to step away from the catwalks, whilst at the same time increasing his commitment to social awareness campaigns, driven by an ecological and moral conscience. In 1993, to celebrate the brand’s tenth anniversary, Moschino organised the retrospective ‘X Anni di Kaos!’ at the Permanente in Milan, which, together with the catalogue published for the occasion, traced all the milestones of his eclectic career. In the same year, a presentation of his iconic designs was organised, with a fashion show held at the Teatro Nazionale in Milan; however, just a few months later, in September 1994, Moschino passed away from AIDS, a disease which at the time was still, in effect, incurable.