DUMBO and IUTER, MILANO IMPERFECTA: A PROJECT BY IVANO ATZORI
Dedicated to an attitude, a style, a (counter)culture, and above all to credibility. To a truly international community that detests the idea of being an audience.
MILANO IMPERFECTA is a collection of pieces that builds on the social, cultural and intellectual friction of the city and translates it into antagonistic compositions, where elegance is in dialogue with destruction and the obsession of vandalism embraces concept and form. It is a fusion of worlds that at first seem distant but are all part of the same lived experience.
“I grew up in a city where the luxury, opulence and elegance of the center gave little consideration to the intellectual inertia, the neglect and the absence of culture found in the outskirts. This polarization served as both my motivation and my education. I have always kept with me everything of worth from the margins of the city. Simultaneously, I aimed to appropriate, often without asking, anything that fascinated me from the center.” – Ivano Atzori
MILANO IMPERFECTA is the latest development in Ivano Atzori’s research and practice of the last 25 years. His ongoing need to reshape, augment and remodel the city in which he was raised and with which he has remained in constant (and uncensored) dialogue. MILANO IMPERFECTA aims to represent the many voices that are often considered too marginal for cities to listen to. MILANO IMPERFECTA starts over, creating a horizontal line that ignores the geographic dialectic of the center and the outskirts and recentering the discourse on the strength and potential of human relationships. It focuses on the forces that, by acting upon the territory, improve it and make it vital and alluring.
“IUTER had the courage to listen to me and then put all of their talent and knowledge at my disposal. IUTER, as a company, is the demonstration of how energy and vision can create something that dismantles and surpasses static concepts of geography and marginality.” – Ivano Atzori The MILANO IMPERFECTA collection was born from a process of research that started with the clothing worn and accumulated by Ivano Atzori during his life and his artistic career.
Working closely alongside the IUTER style office, Ivano has reinterpreted both classic and utility garments, imbuing them with authority thanks to the superimposition of high-impact designs that reflect his artistic obsession.
The main print used in the collection is a classic “buffed” (erased) Dumbo tag that transforms into a pattern, synonymous with resistance. A historical photo taken by Lele Saveri in the carriages of the M2 is decontextualized and used as a photo poster digitally printed onto a formal suit in 164-gram virgin wool. Other marks and signs, all synonymous with actions, freely conquer the fabrics used.
Such as the trenchcoat in Japanese twill, altered with the color black through a performative movement. Next, a distinctive garment-dyed and embroidered jumpsuit, with multifunctional fit and details. A set made up of a vest, trousers and shorts, also in Japanese twill, all characterized – as is the jumpsuit – by applications that simulate human joints on the knees and spine and complete with integrated balaclava in the front pocket. The Italian cotton shirt in two colorways, white or black, made unique by its hood and drawstring and soiled by a radical spray pattern on the rear, screen-printed onto the finished garment.
The capsule is completed by a hoodie with details particularly suited to life on the street – 400 g/m2 non-brushed jersey. Mesh net on the hood around the ears and long ribbed cuffs with knuckle covers. An ice gray on black all-over print. And a series of four t-shirts with the artist’s iconic drawings, graphics and “proclamation quotes”. All garments are Made in Italy and boast a special jacquard label with the MILANO IMPERFECTA claim in red on black.
The MILANO IMPERFECTA capsule will be available exclusively from IUTER and Slam Jam,
including respective online stores, from June 18th, 2023.
Credits
Collection images by Alessandro Zuek Simonetti; styling Anna Carraro, art direction Ivano Atzori.
Community: Edward Buchanan (creative director), Aurora Marchese (tattoo artist), Carlino Maggiar and Martino Ribeiro (free spirits), Simona Coltello (creative director), Tony Brugnoli (photographer), Gloria Maria Cappelletti (creative director), Williams Obrou (artist), Simone Guzeto (photographer).
About Iuter
Founded in 2002, IUTER is an independent brand born and raised in Milan. The origins of the brand are deeply rooted in the coming together of different street subcultures. And action sports: snowboarders, graffiti writers, skaters and other members of metropolitan subcultures have all helped make IUTER. The leading culture brand in Italy, with a constant focus on community and counterculture. Over time, IUTER has developed its production capacity, becoming known for the creation of high-quality Made in Italy products.
About Ivano Atzori
Undoubtedly the best-known graffiti writer of his era. Ivano Atzori (aka DUMBO) began his career as a teenage vandal, tagging the streets of Milan. Growing up in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. He used this medium to grab the attention of everyone from journalists. To the fashion establishment to regular passers-by.
In 2001, he opened the store King Kong with Federico Sarica. Which quickly became the first place to connect underground movements with institutionalized fashion. Numerous young talents, including Marcelo Burlon and Giorgio di Salvo, had their creative beginnings at King Kong. It was also the first Italian store to sell established counter-culture brands like Supreme, Bernhard Willhelm and P.A.M. Perks and Mini.
Since 2015, he has lived and worked in the southwest corner of Sardinia, having founded the creative studio Pretziada there. Milano Imperfecta is his first capsule collection.
