For MSGM’s A/W 2018 women’s collection, founder Massimo Giorgetti celebrated his brand’s home city of Milan, with exuberant foulard silk shirts, fluffy knitwear and football scarves emblazoned with names of its eating and drinking landmarks, like Bar Basso and Jamaica café. The spirit of Italy is also integral to the interior design of the brand’s first London flagship, a two-floor 185 sq m space in South Kensington, housing MSGM’s bold and pattern-popping men’s and women’s collections.
Fortuitously, when Giorgetti began conceiving the space – with the support of ML Architecture – a site visit showed that many of its desired elements were already in place. The space boasts raw cement ceilings with exposed beams, weathered over time. ‘Everything was already perfect’ Giorgetti says. These surfaces have been offset against flooring and fixtures in bold Venetian terrazzo, in a patina of primary colour emblematic of the label. ‘This is the first time we’ve used this kind of stone,’ he adds of the design concept of the boutique, which brings MSGM's monobrand global store count to over 30.
There is a futuristic flair to the space, which features walls lined with semi-reflective insulating aluminium and mirrored steel. The women’s ground floor and men’s basement space are connected by a lift surrounded by dehydrated maintenance-free plants, conceived by plant artist Satoshi Kawamoto. In a nod to Italian design, colourful seating comes courtesy of Elettra chairs by studio BBPR for Artflex and D 70 sofas designed by Osvaldo Borsani for Tecno.
Giorgetti’s collections are made up of contrasts, like a flourish of romanticism amongst streetwear silhouettes, or elegance within raw urbanity. Downstairs, the sleek terrazzo flooring is juxaposted against unfinished Aquaroc walls, which are stamped with the date of the store’s opening. The imprint is a marker of the bricks-and-mortar meeting between the Italian label and the UK, which was one of the first markets to embrace MSGM when it launched in 2009. ‘It’s the beginning of a new story,’ Giorgetti says. We’re sure it will be a real page-turner.
The space is lined with colourful Venetian terrazzo, offset against raw ceiling beams
Reflective aluminium surfaces bring an interstellar energy to the two-floor 185 sq m boutique
A lift connects the two floors of the space, surrounded by dense foliage
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the MSGM website
ADDRESS
278 Brompton Cross
London
SW7 2NN
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