The fashion industry is as much about promotion as art as it is about clothing and accessories as art. Without a well-honed message, it’s pretty difficult to get anyone to spend thousands of dollars, no matter how pretty the product. During designer transitions, a brand’s ability to self-promote is even more important; it needs both to explain to existing customers why they shouldn’t look elsewhere and attract new customers who had previously ignored the brand. This season, Moschino did that by hiring wild child Jeremy Scott and letting him theme his entire first collection around junk food, spawning, among others, the Moschino Junk Food Capsule Collection Quilted Leather Bag.
The bag is a mashup of McDonald’s fast food branding and iconic Chanel flap bags, and depending on your perspective, it’s either a Warholian masterpiece or an affront to McDonald’s, Chanel and the concept of good taste. While it might seem like it at first glance, that’s not necessarily a bad thing – Moschino knew exactly what it was getting into with Scott, whose pop-art sensibility is extremely well-documented, and there’s precious little better for garnering press attention than offending traditional fashion sensibilities. (See: Kim and Kanye on Vogue.)
Things get a little bit trickier when it comes to actually selling handbags like these, though, but Moschino’s done at least one thing correctly: instead of waiting for the regular six-month manufacturing cycle to run its course, the brand is capitalizing on the press frenzy by making these limited-edition bags available immediately. You can pick one up for $1,265 via LUISAVIAROMA, which translates to about 421 Happy Meals, if you dosh out for the fancy kind with McNuggets.
