Don’t make Adrian Appiolaza pick a single theme or just one geographical reference. His bubbly personality and ebullient creativity would suffer — and so would his Moschino collections.
In his joint women’s resort 2026 and men’s spring 2026 effort, Appiolaza’s joyful fashion chaos was infectious, spreading everywhere — from gyms to supermarket aisles, from quirky motels to the Grand Canyon.
“For me Moschino is a place to play with many ideas. The idea of chaos is something that’s always taken into account when it comes to put together these Moschino characters,” he said over Teams, while browsing through the fun look book images photographed by Chris Rhodes.
“[We wanted] a sort of surreal holiday, blurred with reality. That’s why I took it to different locations, with the message that no matter where you are, it’s always a good time to dress up… [That] doesn’t need a special occasion, it can be anywhere,” said Appiolaza.
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In keeping a foot grounded in real life, the designer tapped into current trends, including the obsession for all things sporty. Hence the athletic undertone throughout the collection — there were swimmers in trompe-l’œil bathing suits; surfers in floral separates mimicking neoprene; tennis champions in Wimbledon-nodding attire; gymnasts in plain underwear, and boxers cinching jackets with winning belts or carrying punching bags as, well, bags.
Baseball jerseys and soccer-inspired shoes added to hybrid takes on tracksuits and sartorial staples. The former came in tailoring fabrics and stitching details traditionally informing suit linings; the latter comprised deconstructed jackets with basketball-inspired mesh on the back or recreating a compressed effect via trompe-l’œil. Such a technique was also deployed to address the obsession for a sculpted physique in a printed slipdress, T-shirt and boxers.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, Appiolaza’s ebullient characters embraced a festive mood with designs evoking Christmas decorations, ranging from a knit gown with silver sequined stars to coats and skirts covered in a camp panettone pattern.
In between, Moschino’s signature humor and irreverence permeated the rest of the iconography Appiolaza has been carrying on since the beginning of his tenure, centered on cloud motifs, smiley faces, heart shapes, polka dots and takes on Rue Cambon-winking tailleurs.
“My previous jobs were always about focusing on one idea and one message, which it’s great but Franco [Moschino] was really against that and I’ve always been a person that has too many ideas and always needed to block myself and narrow [them] down,” said Appiolaza. “When I came at Moschino, one of the things that I knew was that Franco was about chaos too, so I thought maybe here is where I can really express myself.”