As an independent designer possessed with a yen for ballet, opera, and the visual arts, Arthur Arbesser relishes residing in a space outside the spectrum of Milan fashion’s mainstream. And yet you could see that cherished intellectual position being profoundly pulled at during his presentation for this collection. The reason was the location, a pop-up space on Via Della Spiga, one of the most significant shopping arteries in the bourgeois heart of this old city. With evident satisfaction, Arbesser reported: “Last night, when we were setting up, there were a lot of ladies passing and showing interest. One of them popped her head around the door and said, ‘Finally! Something on the street with a bit of color; something a little bit different from all the usual brands!’”
The space, though small, was for sure a head turner. Tables loaded with antique Viennese glassware from Arbesser’s own hoard were laid with vividly patterned and vibrantly colored Como-made tablecloths, whose prints were drawn from past collections.There was a television installation—with old-world cathode ray TVs—involving Philip Glass and a flautist named Francesca. Photographic prints from this look book papered the floor and wall, alongside a six-canvas painting that Arbesser’s colleague painted while the collection was being developed.
That collection, however, was the chief eye candy. There was a sweet new print based on the little, long-forgotten personal keepsakes Arbesser rediscovered when in lockdown limbo going through old boxes of stuff. He also dug out his fabulous pixel print for shirting, skirts, and dresses; reset his stripes story; and offered a trench in a metallic fabric whose supply Arbesser is close to exhausting. This was a designer staying in his lane and loving it. “I’m not a provocative guy, and I don’t have anger inside me. I’m not the coolest designer. But you know, it’s a great thing to come to the realization that you are happy with your language, your work, and your place in things—it’s peaceful,” he said. Arbesser’s anti-crisis resulted in another lovely collection. If only he could have kept that store for a few more days.
