Don't be fooled by the vintage hairstyles: the images in Arthur Arbesser's lookbook were not taken in 1976. That was the year the designer's seasonal muse, Monika Kaesser, a Viennese shop owner, opened her bauble emporium, which he directed for almost three decades. .
Kaesser's refined gestures, dignified posture and formal manner have always radiated charm, Arbesser said, at least since he discovered the store as a child and examined every glass vase, turn-of-the-century silver tray and sophisticated fantasy jewelry with so much style. displayed in the store, marveling at the owner's good taste.
“In the store nothing was out of place, not too many pieces or not enough. It was not a luxury [shop]but very chic,” he said.
Arbesser, a genuinely curious person, used a chance encounter turned day-long conversation with her as the starting point for his fall collection, intended to recreate the lady's manners and fashion style, through the vein Arbesser's artistic work.
Airy opera coats with ruffled hems in duchess silk, Kaesser's favorite fabric, were layered over A-line skirts; Glassware taken from the shop, including a set of green stemmed glasses belonging to the Arbesser family, was turned into prints on a pleated skirt and matching shirt, reminiscent of early Paul Smith motifs.
The designer's signature colorful check motif was reused on a ruched sundress and a hand-painted tulle jacket over a shirt of the same pattern, or as beautiful jacquard knitwear in fuzzy mohair.
Naïve geometric patterns made with the potato print technique that was fashionable in the 1920s, the same era from which most of Kaesser's trinkets came, decorated turtlenecks and bralettes used as layering pieces. They came from a place of true affection.
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