Smacking down with hammering electronic beats and chaotic videography, MSGM’s FW21 show should have come with a side of ibuprofen. Vertigine, Italian for vertigo, was the collection concept, which the Milanese label defined by “a disorienting sensation that your sense of balance is not good and that your body is out of sync with the surroundings; a strong feeling of bewilderment.” Naturally, a poetic link was being made to a larger pandemic context.

In such unsettling times, Massimo Giorgetti’s respite has arrived in the form of mountain-wandering through the Alps of northwestern Italy. From peace to adrenal rush, he’s been reflecting on the sensations that arise in such powerful settings, and by extension, the figurative mountains of our internal landscapes. Staged in a blizzard, the streamed show was largely mountaineer-inspired, but the rendering was a little off-piste, in typical Giorgetti fashion.

Clad in ski gloves, KANGOL bucket hats, and boots by trekking label SCARPA, there were blistered colours and stuttering prints that’d make for an extremely photogenic rager, and call for another dose of ibuprofen, at least the morning after. One “rave of stones” print imitated the texture of rocks and glaciers while the “trees on acid” motif made a redux from the archive. The collection seemed to be on something pretty strong itself, but hey, it looked like it was having a good time.