#CHOOSEYOURROOTS

The14th of October is the closing date for an exhibition that truly opened the doors to a beloved brand’s way of imagining and expressing fashion. MUDEC in Milan hosted ‘Generation Paisley’, the ideal way to celebrate the 50 years since the house’s foundation in 1968, through a kaleidoscope of images and senses: Place and time, roots and culture.This is what Etro is all about, an organic experience, a sedimentation of ideas and codes shaping the objects of everyday life. Everything that comes out of the designing room is the result of an unquenched curiosity, an endless anthropological research that implies a visionary and conscious point of view.Take, for instance, the much celebrated Paisley motif – the date palm sprout, “The Tree of Life”. Originating from Mesopotamia and recognized as a symbol of fertility and longevity, it has become a pillar of Etro’s entire work, thus making it unique.

The exhibition in MUDEC is imaginative, offering an articulate experience: the leafy branches of a giant tree welcome the visitor, while a sort of dorsal spine spirals through the 5 rooms uninterrupted, overcoming boundaries, building an analogic and stylistic path comprised of 50 outfits from different collections. The whole operation results in an extremely absorbing experience: Amidst walls covered in fabrics, paintings, mirror reflections that multiply and amplify, digital and three- dimensional effects, the visitor is immersed in an atmosphere that is estranging and familiar at the same time.
An emotional kaleidoscope that underlines how the cultural element is the founding principle for the brand and how fashion is mainly existential sensibility and content, not just form.

Many items on display belong to the personal collections of members of the Etro family. Great travellers and intellectuals, each one of them is animated by a different passion. In complete harmony with the MUDEC, and following the idea of an infinite cabinet of curiosities, the exhibition has also imagined possible interactions between these precious objects and those already present in the museum’s collection, thus constructing a productive dialogue that symbolically erases boundaries, giving space to sensibility and feelings.

GENERATION PAISLEY
MUDEC, via Tortona 56 20144 Milano
From September 23rd to October 14th