A dress Mr. Scott designed for a Moschino collection inspired by game-show kitsch, which featured an entire TV dinner on its train, played a starring role in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2019 exhibition “Camp: Notes on Fashion.” (That dress was one of about 15 Moschino outfits in the show.) Alongside the runway stunts, Mr. Scott was canny enough to offer special collections with T-shirts and phone cases, allowing everyone access to his Moschino world.
Sometimes the jokes could fall flat, but overall the result was a boom in sales, at least until last year. In 2022, Aeffe — which also owns the brands Alberta Ferretti, Philosophy di Lorenzo Serafini and Pollini — reported a loss of nine million euros (about $10 million) on revenues of 352 million euros (about $377 million), thanks in part to complications in China.
“He took chances, but always with a sense of fun,” said Robert Burke, the founder of a namesake luxury consultancy, of Mr. Scott. “He was a great match for Moschino.”
Though Mr. Scott had maintained his own eponymous brand throughout most of his time at Moschino, in recent seasons it has been put on hold. Whether it will now be revived, or whether, as he once suggested, he will move into movies, Mr. Scott did not reveal. In a text message from Seoul, where he is introducing a new collaboration with Hyundai, he simply said, “Every book has chapters and as I end this chapter, I am excited to share with the world my next chapter.”
It is unclear whether Mr. Scott’s tenure at Moschino ended because of a shift in the general mood in the industry, which is turning away from buzz-making theatrics and toward “timelessness” as sales of classic luxury brands including Chanel and Hermès soar, or whether, as some conventional wisdom has it, a decade is simply long enough for a single creative director to helm a fashion house. Both Mr. Scott and the Aeffe group declined to elaborate on the statement announcing his departure.
Meanwhile, the fashion game of designer musical chairs continues.
