In yesterday's post we looked at a designer who showcased his collection during the latest Milan Fashion Week and who mainly focused on textile elaborations.
Let's move on today and explore something completely different with Arthur Arbesser's A/W 17 graphic collection.
The Austrian designer took inspiration for his collection from Wim Wenders' film "Wings of Desire" and East Berlin in the '80s.
The collection opened with a bronzed foiled coat layered onto a checked skirt and, while metallic shades returned here and there along the collection, the graphic patterns prevailed.
Checks, diagonal lines and stripes appeared as prints or in orange, yellow, and pink or red, white, black and light blue shades on intarsia ribbed knit dresses and body forming turtlenecks.
The geometrical motifs in contrasting shades and colours evoked the Bauhaus textile workshop and in particular Anni Albers' designs.
There was actually an industrial connection with the space used as the venue for the show: the event took indeed place in a disused 19th-century bakery with raw thick concrete walls and bare fixtures contrasting with the most colourful looks (maybe this was also a way to juxtapose the black and white of "Wings of Desire" and Arbesser's passion for colours).
Practicality was introduced via volumes that could be adjusted and reconfigured with functional drawstrings (a current trend).
There was a touch of eccentricity in some of the looks such the (unnecessary) plastic pink shirts, maybe a will to convey a sense of freedom and madness borrowed from Wenders' Marion, a circus artist.
Yet nothing was too clownish here and there were interesting experiments in graphic patterns: Arbesser's optical madness confirmed he is much better when he goes off a tangent and tries to reinvent Anni Albers' geometries than when he opts for black and white looks.
His attempts at introducing a reference to uniforms with a black and white sailor's suit or via the final black crystal trimmed pin-striped jumpsuit (that vaguely called to mind in its shape Pierrot's costume), fell rather flat. The shoes instead tried to elevate the pieces: a collaboration with Vibram, the company better known for their FiveFingers sock sandals, they consisted in sock booties applied on a thin rubber sole or on a solid coloured platform.
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