Flock of Swans
Review of MSGM Fall 2024 Fashion Show
By Mark Wittmer
THE COLLECTION
THE VIBE
THE THEME
Fall 2024 sees MSGM offers its own take on the Truman Capote revival. While the ongoing season of Feud – which centers on the iconic American writer’s falling out with his coterie of muses, or “swans,” in stylish 60s New York – has been one of the latest entries in the trend of movies and TV manufacturing fashion trends, creative director Massimo Giorgetti goes further back to draw his collection’s subtitle from Capote’s first novel. 1948’s Other Voices, Other Rooms is a far cry from the refined yet sinister socialites of Feud, instead leaning into the Southern Gothic tradition and offering an exploration of social isolation, queerness, and the spectral reality of societally enforced gender roles.
Giorgetti’s direction for the collection itself, however, falls back into the glamor of the Swans, updating swanky 60s cocktail attire for the contemporary woman of style. While it’s a bummer that the title is misleading and instead of this potential new direction we get the same gorgeous but shallow glamor of sinuous socialites, the designer does do a great job of incorporating this iconic (and apparently inescapable) aesthetic into his own oeuvre.
Pencil skirts, polka dot-printed silks, and fur trims immediately recall the graphic elegance of the Swans, but it is lent a bit of toughness by bombers, boots, and sharp tailoring. A particularly effective use of color is present as the collection unfolds in chapters that pair one solid color – yellow, green, deep red, and finally soft pink – with sober and sophisticated neutrals. Prints and embroidery make literal reference to swans, while other detailing echoes the crystal chandeliers or delicate glassware of an uptown soirée.
THE BUZZWORDS
Graphic. Refined. Nostalgic.
THE SHOWSTOPPER
Look #31
The collection felt consistently strong, but this slick, zipped look recognizably played to its historic inspiration while feeling just totally cool on its own terms.
THE DIRECTION
THE WRAP UP
The collection offered a well-executed take on its source of inspiration. But does this source of inspiration feel relevant now? When the mainstream fashion media is already conspiring to convince us that Swan-chic is the new Barbiecore, it feels like a somewhat shallow play to trends to so directly theme an entire collection around this one idealized vision of a 60s New York socialite who associates with provocative writers – but, being utterly and exclusively bourgeois, has nothing provocative to say herself.
With its complex explorations of sexuality, racism, and gender expectations and distinct atmosphere of isolation and decadence in the American south, the book from which the collection draws its title, Other Voices, Other Rooms, could have offered a much more unique and thought-provoking point of departure. Instead, this bait and switch leaves us feeling a bit deceived. We don’t need more swans.
All that being said, the collection looks great, and there are dozens of covetable pieces here. If we want fashion concepts that actually feel literary, provocative, and important, however, a marketable ideal of an embodiment of wealth and power from 60 years ago isn’t the place to look.
