An increasingly fruitful side gig for Arthur Arbesser has been designing costumes for ballet and opera, and this season he imported the elements of storytelling that are inherent in such work to help him spin his lockdown narrative. Using either deadstock fabrics from collections past—“the plan is that after this, it will all be gone”—he created the costumes for what he called “a little fairy tale” whose cast was the friends you see here, shot in a Milan factory space. Polyester-mix dresses were printed with Bridget Riley-ish harlequin diamonds. A highlight print on a series of slouchy poplin menswear shirts was taken from a photocopy of a cut-in-half cabbage, and a long, sleeveless dress in oxblood jersey was inset with a lozenge-edged yellow panel.
Contemplating some red-heavy, crazily pixelated kaleidoscope prints, Arbesser became a little misty-eyed and ventured, “You know, I have always used these pixel prints, and I still remember a review from Nicole years ago mentioning ‘an unmanageable dose of graphics.’” Arbesser and his small team clearly derived great joy from the certainties of endeavor in the middle of uncertain times, and the designer seemed both a little sad not to be showing but also liberated by it. He said, “I’m in such a lucky position. Because I’m a tiny, tiny venture here. No, I’m like a small, small team; I can do whatever I want.”
