How MSGM Stayed on the Crest of the Wave for 15 Years
Massimo Giorgetti is a surfer — just not one of the literal types. He catches other kind of waves.
In the 15 years since launching his brainchild MSGM, Giorgetti developed a special talent to sense the tides of youth culture and trends approaching the fashion coastline; he rode the streams of new means of communication and smart collaborations; he found himself a bigger board (pun intended) with financial backing, and continued to study the wind to intercept any slight change shifting the cultural air around him.
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Don’t be surprised then to see that his upcoming MSGM show will have a simple yet personal inspiration: the sea.
Born in the sunny seaside town of Rimini, in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, Giorgetti has always had the vibrant local Riviera as a point of reference in his life and work, so symmetrically balanced by his love for Milan, his city of adoption.
“I can escape, come to Milan or go to the mountains but at the end of the day, I come from the seaside,” Giorgetti, who also has a stunning property overlooking the Ligurian Sea, told WWD. Named “La Vedetta,” his vacation home will be one of the key inspirations of the lineup that will be revealed on Saturday.
Yet Giorgetti didn’t want to reference exclusively his hometown of Rimini or his Ligurian retreat, but the Mediterranean at large, with everything that comes with it: primary colors and bright hues, nautical references and prints, lots of stripes and an overall sense of positive energy and optimism oozing from the collection.
Or better yet, two collections. To mark the anniversary, Giorgetti decided to parade his men’s spring 2025 offering with the women’s resort 2025 range, for both sentimental and business purposes. For the former reason, he recalled launching MSGM in June 2009 with a coed presentation at the Riccardo Grassi showroom and wanted to channel the same energy for the occasion. As for the latter, the designer wanted to give an extra spotlight to women’s pre-collections since they account for 70 percent to 80 percent out of the total MSGM business, which last year generated around 50 million euros in sales “despite all the uncertainties of the market.”
Then there’s the fashion motive. “Before, the menswear had its own storytelling and inspirations; now there’s more common ground with the female counterpart. In this case, they will share the same textures, prints and context so we thought: ‘Why don’t we show them together?'” said Giorgetti, underscoring that the runway format “required more creativity in approaching the pre-collection compared to a mere commercial exercise.”
Fabric and print experimentations kept Giorgetti and his team busy developing laced textures with a sun-drenched effect or textiles nodding to the tents that define a distinctive and protective element of La Vedetta, looking like sails jutting out into the sky. The residence’s local flora and fauna also inspired graphic patterns of daisies, fun crab prints and jacquard pieces portraying dolphins, which make for one of Giorgetti’s own favorite motifs.
These will add to terrycloth skirt and dresses, piqué polo shirts, scuba details and a galore of mariniere stripes. “It will be MSGM to the nth degree,” Giorgetti promised.
For the occasion, Giorgetti will also debut a new insignia. Designed by Italian graphic design agency Studio Temp after research on ‘90s logos, the ”Mwave” motif reinterprets the brand’s initial in a chubby and irregular font, flanked by a sun shape.
In pure MSGM style, the designer couldn’t miss the opportunity to add an arty touch and collaboration. Giorgetti combined both by partnering with English artist Luke Edward Hall reprising some of his works portraying sailors and flowers as prints in the collection.
The artistic influence will continue in the runway show, which is expected to be replete with an installation and performance and will be staged in an industrial space in Milan’s Via Fantoli that was never tapped for fashion shows, Giorgetti said. While he kept details under wraps, the designer teased the event will be “slightly different from other MSGM shows” but will still involve a pool of Italian creatives for everything from the scenography to the soundtrack.
Community-building has always been central in Giorgetti’s vision for the brand, whether creating a strong circle of collaborators or loyal customers. The latter have been maturing with the company, as the founder said: “We’re starting to have an audience of women, not just girls, and that makes me happy.
“But I keep working on a youthful aesthetic. This lightheartedness I find in youth is key for me,” Giorgetti said. “The big challenge ahead is to keep our Made in Italy approach at an accessible price, because for me carefreeness is not expressed only in the creative process but in the fact that a person can buy MSGM with a light heart. And this is becoming the main challenge: it’s no longer about the sales goal to reach but the price point to maintain.”
The designer said the company still makes 98 percent of its collections in Italy, while other contemporary brands produce elsewhere. If the MSGM womenswear is still competitive in this arena, Giorgetti candidly said that menswear is a tad behind, impacted by the ongoing workwear trend. “I don’t need to [embrace] that. The MSGM client can buy the original workwear brands. I do it, too….With my own label, I try to offer a lighter, youthful fashion,” he said.
Yet he enthused about the quality in fashion getting better and value-for-money becoming a mantra for all companies, including his own. “Customers don’t want to be fooled anymore: before buying a simple shirt or T-shirt, they think about it very well and ponder if it makes sense to introduce that piece in their wardrobe, even if they have the spending capacity to afford it,” Giorgetti said.
While he acknowledged this year “to be very complicated,” he said MSGM is strengthening its footprint in Asia, one of its top markets. Last month, the company — whose minority stake is held by Italian private equity fund Style Capital — signed an exclusive partnership with I.D. Look, a distributor of contemporary brands in South Korea and Japan since 1988. As part of the deal, a rollout of 10 standalone stores in South Korea by 2028 is in the pipelines. This will be followed by similar deals designed to boost MSGM’s presence and brand awareness in Vietnam and China, too.
Product-wise, Giorgetti also sees gaps to fill. Aware that there’s much space to grow in the accessories department, he’s eyeing reigniting old projects and targeting new categories.
For example, when asked about one of his regrets so far, he mentioned the unfortunate timing of the launch of his underwear collection in February 2020. This followed a successful “pilot” capsule that debuted the year before, embodied by Leonardo Tano, model and son of famous Italian porn star and actor Rocco Siffredi. But as the pandemic hit just as a full-fledged line was to be launched, “other priorities took over,” recalled Giorgetti, who still believes in the potential of the category.
Other future projects might involve an eyewear license and switching from a past idea of launching fragrances to experiment with “an energizing skin care line,” which would be attuned with the brand’s overarching feel-good vision.
Asked to look backward instead, and pinpoint his pivotal moments in the MSGM journey, Giorgetti reiterated the importance of his first presentation — when he called an artist last-minute to intervene Jackson Pollock-style on his basic fleeces — as well as when the brand became a hit on Instagram circa 2013, boosted by the endorsement of influencers, street-style personalities and the late Franca Sozzani.
In addition, he mentioned a series of fashion shows close to his heart, including the men’s spring 2019 one, when he staged an imaginary volleyball match between Rimini and Milan. “It ended in a tie, perfect balance,” Giorgetti recalled with a smile.
Also among his favorites, the MSGM fall 2018 collection built on his love letters to Milan by featuring soccer-inspired prints on blanket scarves and sweaters that paid tribute to landmark bars and bakeries in the city, such as Pasticceria Cucchi, Jamaica, Bar Basso and Pravda Bar. A month before, Giorgetti paraded the MSGM men’s fall 2018 collection, modeled by a cast of real students from the universities of Milan wearing T-shirts with quotes like “Tempo di cambiare,” or “time to change,” that would become one of the brand’s staple pieces and top-selling items.
Quotes added to the range are often customer favorites such as: “Pensavo fosse amore invece era Milano,” or “I thought it was love but it was Milan instead,” and “Never look back, it’s all ahead.”
“Because at the end of the day, there’s no nostalgia or regrets. It’s always all about moving forward,” Giorgetti concluded.
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