Recycling textiles and garments is a concept high on the fashion industry's agenda, after all, we are aware of the damages caused by the overproduction and overconsumption of cheap garments. Yet, sometimes, rather than recycling garments, this industry seems to be more interested in recycling ideas.
Take the capsule collection Jeremy Scott designed for Moschino for the Chinese New Year (falling on 1st February 2022). The Chinese zodiac gives each year an animal sign and 2022 is the Year of the Tiger.
Looking for a tiger motif, something that has always been rather trendy in fashion, Scott stumbled upon Tony the Tiger, the friendly and fun advertising cartoon mascot for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes breakfast cereal. The collection is already available and on Moschino's site you will find a wide range of T-shirts, hoodies, sweats and accessories as well (a clutch and a scarf), inspired by the famous breakfast cereal box featuring the smiling tiger.
The original idea for Tony came from Eugene Kolkey, an accomplished graphics artist and art director at Leo Burnett, who created in 1952 the tiger character. So licensing the character in the collection must have sounded also relevant for the brand, that may have seen this oppoprtunity as a way to celebrate Tony's 70th birthday.
Yet this is not the first time Tony is associated with the Chinese New Year: in the 1970s the mascot's popularity rose and, while he was given Italian-American nationality (something that turned him into a favourite among the young Italian-American population), Tony was associated with the Chinese New Year in 1974.
Fashion-wise this is not the first time Tony appears in a collection: in 2014, Anya Hindmarch turned her runway into a barcode-printed conveyor-belt on which salesmen danced and glamorous ladies shopped pushing their metal carts.
The products weren't real, though, but they were turned into colourful handbags and among them there was also Kellogg's Tony the Tiger on a blue tote, while Ariel/Daz laundry detergent boxes were turned into clutches very similar to the current Tony the Tiger clutch in Moschino's collection.
Scott was actually inspired by the products you may find in a supermarket in Moschino's Autumn/Winter 2013 menswear collection that was showcased in the aisles of the food hall of Milan's Excelsior shopping emporium and featured prints of Budweiser-like Moschino logos and "Fresh" detergent (spoof of Ariel washing powder) and in Moschino's A/W 14 collection as well. The latter, as you may remember, was inspired by fast food uniforms and confectionery (and also featured a gown inspired by a tutti frutti candy bag with a print of another tiger character... View this photo).
Maybe Scott had Moschino's previous collections in mind or Hindmarch's as well, as the whole capsule seems a bit of a recycled idea, with the tiger striped pants vaguely resembling Scott's Flintstones-inspired collection (View this photo).
You wonder how will Chinese consumers take it: Tony is a quintessentially American and commercial character that was also mocked in 2015 in fake adverts by Finnish anti-capitalist artist Jani Leinonen in which Tony inspires a violent cop, a prostitute and a suicide bomber.
Besides, the mascot has been at the centre of a health controversy in some countries: like other child-friendly mascots he is used to sell products that contain high levels of sugar, saturated fat and salt. As a consequence, Tony and similar characters were banned from being featured in packaging and advertising in Chile, Argentina and Mexico.
Moschino's capsule teaches us that if you're a designer, before recycling an idea and opting to get lost in a supermarket by buying the licence from a food company to use their mascot, you should always check the wider implications behind that specific character and possibly avoid using it if it has already appeared in other designers' collections.
Tiger-stripes have always been favoured by fashion also in costume design, so there was no need for Scott to opt for this banal and lazy interpretation of the tiger. Next time for inspiration he should maybe turn to "Urusei Yatsura" the Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi with Princess Lum, daughter of the leader of the alien invaders, in her iconic tiger striped bikini (a new series should be out this year so that's pretty relevant too).
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