Massimo Giorgetti, a genuine seaside creature (he was born and raised in Rimini, a popular Italian summer resort on the Adriatic coast), recently fell under the spell of mountain life: “At my green age of 44, after a past life in swimsuits on the beach, I must confess that I fell in love with the alpine landscapes and high altitudes – and with the life of famous climbers, ”he said in Zoom. “They were as adventurous as they were handsome men – which is always a good match.”
Having recently spent a lot of restorative time roaming the valleys of northern Italy, Giorgetti was totally enchanted by its beauty. “Mountains mean solitude, oxygen, breathing – your energy is so potent,” he mused. In the MSGM men’s collection, he wanted to convey the powerful feeling of experiencing such a naturalistic magnitude.
“Vertigine” (Italian translation of Vertigo) was the title of the collection, a word that captures the feeling of vertigo that altitude can cause; but it was also chosen by Giorgetti as a metaphor for what we have experienced in our quarantined circumstances – an unsettling feeling of being lost, almost on the verge of losing balance. Despite being naturally equipped with abundant doses of optimism, Giorgetti acknowledged that times are tough and that the # pandemic fatigue is taking its toll. But being able to escape, even briefly to his beloved mountains, proved to be an energizing antidote – partly an adrenaline rush, partly calm introspection.
The collection rummaged through the winter sports repertoire, oscillating between high-performance techno equipment and retro sophistication. The setbacks in heritage were driven by MSGM’s energetic streetwear punch and tempered with an underground 90s rave vibe. Short tweed suits with a vintage St. Moritz touch were worn under sweatshirts enlarged in lysergic colors; Postcards from luxurious ski resorts in the 1930s were transformed into expanded prints. Jeans and anoraks were laser marked with contours of the Mont Blanc silhouette – they looked cool combined with square XXXL shirts in bold colors, printed in abstract motifs that mimic the textures of rocks and the icy reflections of the glaciers.
The collection’s vibrancy conveyed images more suggestive of a fun and cool rave in the mountains than a healthy snowboard picnic in the Swiss Alps. The sensation was reinforced by the electronic soundtrack of the video transmitted online presented today during Milan Men’s Fashion Week – a pulsating and high-octane case composed and performed by the Italian artist Nico Vascellari and his band Niños du Brasil.
Asked to expand the creative concept behind the video, which reproduced models randomly walking under a snowstorm (perhaps a promising future scenario for boys en route to an undisclosed party location in the mountains?), Giorgetti said that this season he chose for not participating in the artistic collaborations that are often part of her fashion practice: “I wanted something normal. Honest. Simple. The experimentation is very good. But nothing can beat a good, old-fashioned and practical fashion show, ”he said. “Even under snow it would do.”