Arthur Arbesser likes to keep things small—not only because as an independent designer he has to deal with limited resources, but because he likes a “more domestic dimension for my practice, more protected from stressful pressures,” as he explained at his spring presentation.
Shown on mannequins in a pristine contemporary art gallery, his whimsical pieces were interspersed with artworks handmade from found objects: pieces of a chair morphed into an abstract shape, driftwood bejeweled with silk threads and pearls, metallic leftovers mutated into a tenuous freestanding structure. Everything was made in his workshop. “We had such fun; it felt like living in a playground for crazy kids,” he said. “What’s wrong with that? Being a child is beautiful.”
Turning the domestic into soulful inspiration, finding comfort in proximity, being creative using the resources at hand—that’s what appeals to Arbesser, “creating something beautiful, even precious, out of almost nothing, like children do,” he said. This approach has endeared him to an artistic community of kindred spirits who appreciate what he dismissively calls “my bric-a-brac practice.”
Arbesser is a bit of a Renaissance man, and he has successfully branched out into diverse endeavors that require not only imagination but actual designing chops. He has worked with textile companies making beautiful fabrics and carpets, and with interior design factories to produce quirky, inventive furniture. He’s also a compelling costume designer for opera and ballet, and he is currently curating an art collector’s exhibition in Vienna. Children can sometimes be hyperactive.
As for the collection, it was as charming as the designer himself. Pieces exuded poetic simplicity and grace—masculine square-cut shirts, A-line pleated skirts, a raincoat in recycled nylon. There were easy shapes that could be juxtaposed and mismatched, made in honest fabrics printed with delicate graphics inspired by Viennese Secession or offered in the solid colors Arbesser favors, which reference the work of German Expressionist painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
“It isn’t wrong today to be a little more delicate and sensitive, even if this isn’t often considered ‘cool,’” he concluded. “But who cares? We live in a world full of diktats—the only thing that can make you truly happy is to follow your own beat.”
