According to MSGM designer Massimo Giorgetti, his women's Pre-Fall collection and men's Fall collection were "born together." The keyword for men's was "truth." For women? "Beauty." Classic counterparts. Just ask Keats, who back in 1819 was opining that beauty is truth, truth beauty, and that's all ye need to know.
Of course, Giorgetti is more a romantic than a Romantic, far fizzier and less glum than his 19th-century predecessor. "Beauty" for his women was epitomized by watery makeup prints on duchesse satin: kissing lips, spidery eyelashes. "I imagined a girl in the toilet who was looking at herself, doing her makeup," he said.
But there was a step in a more sober direction: black. "It's the first time I'm doing black," Giorgetti said. "MSGM is color, it's print, it's happy. In my mind, black was sad. But now I like it." When it appeared, it wasn't in dour tonal looks but mixed with brights or budding rosettes. "My black is never all black," he added.
So despite the more grown-up jolt of black-and-white tweed, black tailoring, and even a look that paired black jeans and a black sweatshirt, crinoline-lined skirts, minidresses, and gold vinyl varsity jackets kept the collection sugary enough to suit Giorgetti's clients' tastes. Yes, some pieces had phrases from Sylvia Plath printed on them. "I have to be honest, I don't like Sylvia Plath because she is depressing," Giorgetti admitted. "But her phrases are wonderful."
