At MSGM’s smoky, red-lit space (seemingly a theme at Italian menswear shows this week) there was suspenseful sense of foreboding before the show started. A child’s singing played over the airwaves, before switching to the kind of horror flick score. It sounded familiar. Turns out it was Goblin, the Italian band favoured by Dario Argento for his films.
That wasn’t just a coincidence. Argento, the legendary director of Suspiria and Deep Red, was the star of the show. Massimo Giorgetti collaborated with him on the collection and the show itself. The result was something altogether much moodier than MSGM’s usual bright and uplifting outings. Less pop, more goth. “Fairy tales are full of terrifying things,” read some of the pieces. Of course, nothing could be as scary as the world we’re living in, so the collaboration couldn’t be more perfectly timed.
“It was like going back to school for me,” said Massimo after the show, positively vibrating with joy. “He is an idol of mine, ever since I was a teenager.” Part of the process was working together — both in person and over WhatsApp, as most modern relationships go — was diving into Argento’s extensive archive of movies, soundtracks and posters in Rome. Posters of some of Argento’s most famous films, from such as The Cat o’ Nine Tails to Phenomena and Suspiria became an MSGM take on Dario Argento merch.
But it was the mood of the films that informs the cinematic atmosphere of the show and the rest of the clothes. It transpired that he loved colour as much as the designer, so there was plenty of high-intensity hues to accompany the operative colour combo of red and black. There were deliciously gothic floral prints, too — blink-and-miss-it Venus fly traps, screaming faces and magic mushrooms. “It’s absolutely sinister,” agreed Massimo. “But at the end, when you see every look, it’s happy — not sad or dark.”
