“It may not seem like much, but a window to the street is enough,” says Arthur Arbesser, who has long been obsessed with windows, watching life unfold through glass when the lights come on at night. The space where he showed his Spring 2025 collection was a small white box, with the tiles on the floor replaced with artificial turf. But behind the window, an unassuming door opened to an unexpected space, intimate yet communal. The space led to the back entrance of the studio of Turi Simeti, one of Italy’s most influential artists of the 20th century, an abstractionist master who transformed simple ovals into his own language.
“Magic often comes from the smallest things. This collection was born while looking around us. It’s always a surprise to discover that what is around us can be transformed into an emotional fabric to build something,” says Arbesser. The hands of one of the interns, Francesco, were the starting point for an aesthetic exploration of everyday symbols. When giving flowers or writing a postcard, thoughts become gestures through the hands. Arbesser transformed those gestures into collage prints, a recurring motif in the collection. Along with post-it notes, bar wall tiles and plaid napkins, they reflect the reduction of unnecessary things in pursuit of simplicity. “Fashion has become an industry where numbers and size seem to be the most important thing, but for us, small feels right, small feels clever,” says the designer.
In the studio’s shower room, there are scraps of fabric dyed orange, taffeta repurposed into wearable clothes, old animal photographs repurposed into psychedelic prints, poker chips bought at flea markets used as jewelry, and sculptural hats painted in irregular rhythms. Arthur Arbesser knows how to play with the system and its rules. And he knows how to have fun, and how to entertain people. When designing homeware or creating costumes for the opera house, he values the mental space where he feels free. “It may be un-Milanese to think freely,” he says. But his greatest talent remains the naivety that draws him to warmth and eclectic stories, and offers his friends and clients apricot juice and Coca-Cola, because that’s exactly what he dresses them in.
