Review of MSGM Fall 2023 Men’s Fashion Show
School Daze
By Mark Wittmer
Staged among the awesome industrial architecture of Milan’s Scuola di Architettura Urbanistica e Ingegneria delle Costruzioni, the Fall 2023 men’s show from MSGM proposed an optimistic and layered exploration of one of Italian fashion’s seemingly favorite themes: collegiate attire. The collection marks MSGM’s second that has been themed around a collegiate idea, complete with fictional universities: five years ago it was the “University of Causality,” while today’s young learners attend the “MSGM Dreamers University.”
A spirit of boyish optimism and disheveledness characterizes the looks that find young men in moments of transition, camaraderie, and discovery.
The expected varsity and track jackets, rugby shirts, and cardigans appear in bright primaries and pinks, complete with letters and a cool cat mascot. But compiled alongside the accumulated ephemera of college spirit are suiting pieces – a tuxedo jacket, a navy blazer, a pinstripe pant, a check coat – as if these young men have raided their fathers’ closets in an effort to be seen as more dignified and serious in order to impress a teacher, a classmate, a love interest.
Thoughtful details that lend story and character abound: a crooked tie that was thrown on in the morning after a night of partying or perhaps a poetry reading, a varsity jacket signed like a yearbook. Berets lend a sense of revolutionary idealism. I (Heart) T-shirts speak to a feeling of universal love.
Also present are the cargo pants and hoodies we would expect from a brand built on the idea of streetwear, while an interesting use of a tinsel-like fabric on everything from sweaters to shoes threads a bit of goofy glam throughout the looks.
The collegiate aesthetic isn’t anything new in fashion, and MSGM didn’t push it to any revelatory new places. But it did offer a particularly fun and cute exploration of the style which feels like a core cultural experience and to which many moments in fashion return, and used it to create a celebration of adventure, togetherness, and positivity.