Mood board: Colour is essential to Arbesser’s aesthetic. The Viennese designer draws on the bold art and design heritage of his home city for inspiration. Arbesser looked closer to his Milan studio for autumn, which was designed by the Italian architect and furniture designer Luigi Caccia Dominioni in the 1940s. Dominioni completed over 100 projects in Milan before his death at 103, favouring graphic lines and a sparse sprinkling of windows. There was a bourgeoisie sensibility in the collection, inspired by the location of the studio, which overlooks Sant’Ambrogio square. There were trenchcoats, silk blouses, handkerchief skirts and V-neck gilets all imagined in Arbesser’s unusual colour palette (with emphasis on browns, golds, reds and lilacs), and his eccentric use of pattern.
Scene setting: Arbesser held his runway show at Rockspot, an indoor climbing center. Its climbing walls, populated with pebbly, colourful footholds formed a serendipitous backdrop to the tones and patterns in the collection, and offered a contrast to those bourgeois silhouettes on show.
Best in show: Arbesser used Tuscan Casentino to highlight the bourgeois elements in the collection, its thick wool fabrication used to create elegant belted coats. More unusual fabrications came in the form of archive photographic lychee and pomegranate prints, featured on skirts, smart trousers and waistcoats.
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Dries van Noten on why he's building a new home for craft in VeniceA year after departing the runway, Dries van Noten unveils his next chapter: the Fondazione Dries Van Noten, a newly announced cultural initiative in Venice celebrating craft in all its forms. Wallpaper meets the designer to find out why he’s not ready to retire.
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Alexander Wessely turns the Nobel Prize ceremony into a live artworkFor the first time, the Nobel Prize banquet has been reimagined as a live artwork. Swedish-Greek artist and scenographer Alexander Wessely speaks to Wallpaper* about creating a three-act meditation on light inside Stockholm City Hall
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At $31.4 million, this Lalanne hippo just smashed another world auction record at Sotheby’sThe jaw-dropping price marked the highest-ever for a work by François-Xavier Lalanne – and for a work of design generally
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At its academy, Prada sets an agenda for the future: ‘Technology cannot replace the ability to work with your hands’Wallpaper* takes a trip to the Prada Group Academy in Scandicci, Tuscany, where Prada CEO Andrea Guerra and CMO Lorenzo Bertelli outline the future of Italian craft on the institution’s 25th anniversary
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The story behind Gian Paolo Barbieri’s cinematic fashion photography, which helped define the 1990sA new Milan exhibition explores the legacy of Gian Paolo Barbieri, a photographer who would shape a vision of Italian style alongside collaborators Versace, Armani and Valentino
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The key takeaways from the S/S 2026 shows: freedom, colour and romance define fashion’s new chapterWe unpack the trends and takeaways from the S/S 2026 season, which saw fashion embrace a fresh start with free-spirited collections and a bold exploration of colour and form
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The independent designers you might have missed from fashion month S/S 2026Amid a tidal wave of big-house debuts, we take you through the independent displays that may have slipped through the cracks – from beautiful imagery to bookshop takeovers, museum displays and moves across the pond
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From wearable skincare to scented runways, unpacking the unconventional beauty moments of fashion month S/S 2026The S/S 2026 season featured everything from probiotic-lined athleisure to fragranced runways – and those Maison Margiela mouthguards
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In Milan, the fashion world gathers to say goodbye to Giorgio Armani at his final showOriginally planned to mark the 50th anniversary of Giorgio Armani’s eponymous house, Sunday evening’s runway show at Milan’s Pinacoteca di Brera would prove to be the last from the designer, who passed away earlier this month aged 91
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Dario Vitale makes sexually-charged debut for Versace, inspired by the ‘bold attitude’ of Gianni VersaceSucceeding Donatella Versace, the ex-Miu Miu design director is the first to helm the brand outside of the Versace family. His debut last night in Milan was staged within the opulent rooms of Pinacoteca Ambrosiana
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The standout shows of Milan Fashion Week S/S 2026This season in Milan, the city is enjoying a wave of creative director debuts, from Demna at Gucci to Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta. Here are the Wallpaper* highlights so far
