“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, architecture, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.". (John Keating, Dead Poets Society)”
Surrounded by glass, iron and concrete — in the brutalist buildings of the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Milan — the “MSGM Dreamers University” comes to life.
Five years after the “University of Causality”, as in the second season of a successful series, a new fictional university describes a new generation of MSGM kids. It is a school that celebrates creativity and freedom of expression, the power of ideas and of Art in all its forms — that recognises happiness as a social, cultural and artistic responsibility: “happiness is the way”, as the collection’s promotion states, an ode to pursuing one’s dreams.
In the emphatic lyrics of the CCCP soundtrack, there is the gentle rebellion of being young, of those chasing the Fleeting Moment — as Peter Weir’s film, Dead Poets Society, is often known abroad, a film that inspires their romantic, passionate and brilliant attitude.
“Poetry, beauty, romance and love, these are what we stay alive for” says Massimo Giorgetti, quoting John Keating, the unforgettable professor who stars in the film, whose words open the show, read by the singer gIANMARIA. “I like to think that this truth is confirmed every day by a generation that faces the World with the desire to change things. My work is inspired by them, including this collection”, adds the Creative Director.
With heraldic symbols, coats of arms and effigies, we enter an ironic yet sophisticated college universe. The looks express a “normie” look — mature clothes with unusually clean silhouettes, in a palette defined by essential brushstrokes of optical white and inky black, midnight blue and deep red, baby blue and pink with grey and brown.
The feel of Dead Poets Society is found in campus looks: V-neck jumpers paired with fleece joggers, coats and coach jackets worn over jackets and cardigans, flannel ties and Oxford shirts. Stripes, madras checks and micro-checks are revisited in a hyper-contemporary key, tailoring is updated by trousers in classic fabrics cut with cargo shapes, with large pockets.
A curious mascot pops up on down puffa jackets, sweatshirts, jumpers and jacquard waistcoats with “deconstructed” argyle motifs. It is the collection’s more light-hearted and playful side, encapsulated in a seasonal statement “I ❤️”, an invitation to rejoice in life.
Fun is also suggested by the references to gaming, with a decidedly vintage flavour: tokens embroidered onto sweatshirts, or interpreted as allover prints in an optical key.
The 1980s, 90s, Now: there is veiled nostalgia for a retro world, but with the ecstatic acceleration that is so typical of MSGM, ecstatic like those who every day in the university lecture halls build the future.
