The Marina Moscone Spring 2020 collection is inspired by modernist glamour.
From her very first show, Moscone began a tradition of sharing secret and undiscovered New York locations, gems that echo the abstract and oftentimes engimatic inspiration behind the collections.
Five women revolutionized the modern art world in postwar America in Ninth Street Women, a book set amid the turbulent social and political period of modern times: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler. The book is the creative point of departure for the Spring 2020 Marina Moscone collection, shown on September 11, 2019 at The Players Club in Gramercy Park in New York City. These five fearless women dared to enter the male-dominated world of twentieth-century abstract painting, not as muses but artists in their own right. It is these pioneering women’s journeys that serve as the creative lynchpin for the collection.
The Marina Moscone signature pillars of quality, craftsmanship, womanism, and heritage are all evident, this time viewed through an artistic lens. Clean, gestural shapes with a luxurious ease harken back to the 90’s and early 60’s with layered tailoring, hand-embroideries, and slipdresses nodding to the two decades.
The collection opens with a new tailored silhouette featuring a lightweight silk wool blazer with a built-in cummerbund draped directly into the jacket. Lace-appliqué with thread topstitching is layered over sheer organza voile. Bias-cut silk slipdresses were marbled by hand in an inflatable pool inside the designer’s apartment. Intricate, hand-rendered thread floral embroideries appear on sheer layers over organza voile cut in hues of pale peach, pale aqua, black, and alabaster.
Scalloped Chantilly lace bralettes and seamed inlay offset more structured tailoring and trousers, reflecting the constant tension between the masculine and feminine. A languid, panelled bias twist dress provides a soft contrast to more architectural pieces.
Smocking details recur throughout the collection as bustier tops and dirndl dresses, and are mixed with heavy cotton jacquards and broderie anglaise in both mini and exploded proportions. Signature Marina Moscone shirtdresses this season are rendered in a stripe ribbon jacquard shirting featuring hand-painted mother of pearl buttons and smocked bandeaus.
Contrasts of colors appear throughout, juxtaposing pale aqua, sun-bleached blue, and alabaster with stronger accents of Bordeaux, deep green, black, and navy. Knits this season comprise a sheer fine-gauge plissé rib with contrast trims and smocked double-face tunics in pale lilac and midnight.
Accessories, once again produced in-house, range from a strappy kitten heel and flat sandals handmade in Italy, mini coin purses, and vintage Italian silver lockets on silk jersey provide the finishing touches.
A deeply personal and female perspective underpins the collection, which was reflected in the casting of a diverse range of women.
