If you could focus your eyes on the retina-searing, neon-colored, sunlit runway in Milan’s Triennale Garden today, you would have seen one of Massimo Giorgetti’s best MSGM collections of late. As it marked the 10-year anniversary of the label, Spring 2020 was a collection Giorgetti has been gestating for six months, stripping away the kitschy excess and honing in on his brand DNA. For the first time, he said backstage, he worked without an inspiration, instead reflecting on the best of his decade in fashion.
What that meant on the runway was a varied and exciting lineup of ruffles, colors, and quirk. Things started off with the designer’s pastel tweeds, subverted from their prim connotations with blooming bows and awkward, boxy silhouettes. Then he segued into frilly little knits with a homespun feel worn over transparent chiffon frocks and pieces printed with artwork by Todd Bienvenu. The pieces shoppers will go wild for came later: Lady Di blouses with gigantic ruffles that jutted over the shoulders and revealed an exposed back; worn with bike shorts and bobby socks, the tops felt instantly covetable. The same silhouette translated into watercolor florals and belted frocks with an Yves Saint Laurent spirit.
If these irreverent pieces were Giorgetti hitting his stride, his lace suiting and asymmetrical fringe felt like slight falters. Although maybe it’s all about context. His show was the first to be held in the Triennale’s Giorgio de Chirico space, set among the Surrealist sculptor’s Bagni Misteriosi works. The artist was about shadows, but Giorgetti is about brightening up one’s world, even if it takes head-to-toe-to-fingertip electric pink lace to do it.
