Just when you thought it was a busted flush, Valentino and Moschino revived the digital fashion show

Three days ago, it looked as though the digital fashion show was a busted flush - cold, emotionless, two dimensional and occasionally, shock horror, boring. Pointing a camera or three at a catwalk and hoping to transport the strange alchemy that sometimes happens on there to a screen is about as realistic as expecting an Apple watch haptic to replicate a hug.

Then along came Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons with their first joint collection. While the jury’s split about the clothes, there’s no arguing that those swooping cameras and the “post-show” backstage interview with the designers, during which they answered (carefully edited) questions from the public, provided hitherto unimagined access to two of the more enigmatic figures in fashion today. The rope ladders are being flung down from the top windows of those ivory towers.

Ahead of them in the queue for a Fashion Emmy however is surely Jeremy Scott’s delightful puppet show, which debuted on the Moschino website on Saturday. Scott, who has never been afraid to camp up his catwalks in the name of entertainment, transferred his gift for live spectacle into a pre-recorded gem of what is, after all, proving to be a promising genre. Inspired by the 27 and a half inch dolls which the Paris couture houses sent to clients who couldn’t visit them in person during the dying days of the Second World War, Scott had around 25 racially diverse marionettes constructed.

Scott has famously been a fan of Barbie since he was a child (and has embarked on several fruitful professional collaborations with her), but these 30 inches mannequins were - how to put this? - less Selling Sunset, more Lady Penelope. Lady P was one of the stars of Thunderbirds, the 1960s British TV show, and arguably the first puppet to possess charisma. "Of course Lady Penelope wafted through my mind," he enthused over Zoom from Los Angeles, where he lives, works and preceded over the entire making of the film and the production of the clothes, via a lot of video meetings and Fed-exed fabric samples. “But I have to say, my marionettes have slimmer necks”.

Not for Scott’s swan necked marionettes a silky pyjama pant or an upmarket hoodie. Lockdown in LA made him hungrier than ever for glamour. That meant a skew towards 1950s couture. Gold brocades, sky blue and bronzy-pink tulles and duchess satins were whooshed up into full skirts, shawl necklines and nipped in jackets. It was charming, escapist and so crazily off beam in terms of what most other designers are designing, it can’t fail to resonate on some level. "I really wanted to do something every elegant and beautiful, because on the flip side of everyone being cosy, it’s still my job to try to give you reason to dress up. It’s not always going to be this way, and these are clothes for the long run."

Future psychologists and experts in animism will have a field day with the growing doll obsession among adults. There was a booming market in ultra-realistic baby dolls directed at women who can’t have babies even before lockdown . And now, with Dior’s couture film released in May, this is the second fashion presentation to make use of mannequin dolls. Scott’s weren’t creepy – although the puppets sitting in the front row to represent well known figures such as Anna Wintour, Anna Dello Russo and Hamish Bowles were instantly recognisable – but they do represent an alternative reality where humans, as puppet masters, are far more in control than seems to be the case in this reality.

Pierpaolo Piccioli, Valentino’s Creative Director opted for a more conventional approach: real models, a real audience, albeit a drastically reduced one and a live screening. However, thanks to the 14 cameras in situ, he made it an aesthetically pleasing, immersive experience. It wasn’t just that we got to see the clothes from all angles, but all those aerial views, landscapes and split screens meant that besides seeing close up details of those laser cut cotton dresses and shirts, we could also appreciate the life enhancing qualities of his beautiful clothes.

Floral chiffon maxi dresses billowed, oversized blouses in fuchsia or cappuccino fluttered over slim trousers and cycling short (the big shirt is a star of Milan) and high waisted denim jeans worn with white blazers looked somehow so fresh and approachably chic you may not want to don a hoodie again.

There were hoodies though: floral, sunny and unisex. Piccioli had male and female models in this show wearing interchangeable clothes – an approach that was news worthy when Alessandro Michele began at Gucci five years ago but has become normalised on catwalks. Maybe the days of separate men’s and women’s fashion weeks are gone for good. If anything, the past five months, centred as they have been on the home, with couples borrowing each other’s clothes, add credibility to the idea. A sharing economy certainly makes Valentino more cost-effective.

There was also a live music performance from British artist Labrinth, a plant-centric set that took 120 hours to install into a vast semi industrial building in Milan and a sense – not always present at these digital excursions - of a global communal experience.

For more news, analysis and advice from The Telegraph's fashion desk, click here to sign up to get our weekly newsletter, straight to your inbox every Friday. Follow our Instagram @Telegraphfashion