Arthur Arbesser S/S 2020 Milan Fashion Week Women's

Mood board: Grandmothers are proving a point of inspiration on the S/S 2020 catwalks. Richard Malone dedicated his spring offering to his hospital seamstress grandmother Nellie, who inspired in him an unerring and class resistant approach to creativity. Vienna-born Arbesser’s collection began when he found a box of fabric swatches that belonged to his grandmother Matilda, who was born in Siebenbuergen, today’s modern Romania. ‘It was an archive of prints and patterns from the Twenties to the Eighties when she stopped buying clothes,’ he said backstage. ‘She had a very sacred attachment to the past.’ These swatches informed the swirling Transylvanian ceramics-inspired prints and graphic, post-war architectural patterns in the collection, which featured – in Arbesser’s colourful and eccentric style – hem curling knitwear, paneled silk skirts, cinching sailor collar jackets and gauzy diamond lace dresses.
Finishing touches: ‘The collection had a serious silhouette with a childish twist,’ Arbesser explained of incorporating the kidswear swatches he’d found in Matilda’s fabric box. Playful pizzazz came courtesy of cloud-like oversized berets trailing with fronts of ostrich feathers, and Calderian mobile earrings dangling with mirrored letter ‘A’s.
Best in show: Arbesser used his heirloom discovery to consider the patchwork of his own work life. This culminated in a series of paneled shirts, trousers and long vests formed from swatches of fabrics from his past collections, dyed in the washing machine to a uniform grey. ‘It’s my own little story in fabric,’ he said. ‘The only way you can design fashion is to tell a story that is really your own.’
Arthur Arbesser S/S 2020 Women's at Milan Fashion Week
Arthur Arbesser S/S 2020 Women's at Milan Fashion Week
Arthur Arbesser S/S 2020 Women's at Milan Fashion Week
Arthur Arbesser S/S 2020 Women's at Milan Fashion Week
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the clouds
At 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Kitchen Trends 2026: luminosity, colour, and unexpected materiality
These are kitchen trends shaping interior design in 2026, from collaborative kitchens to warm luminosity
-
A gallery in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales showcases work inspired by nature
Thorns Gallery opens in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, with founders Jonathan Reed and Graeme Black aiming to showcase artworks inspired by the natural world
-
The collections you might have missed this S/S 2026 menswear season
Between the headliners in Paris, Milan and Florence, a few off-schedule displays are deserving of honourable mention – from Martine Rose’s sexually-charged portrait of Kensington Market to Sander Lak’s appointment-only namesake debut
-
Let there be light: a closer look at Prada’s stripped-back S/S 2026 show set
‘This is the first time the Fondazione is completely bare, with the light coming in,’ said Raf Simons backstage at Prada’s ‘light, fresh, colourful’ and ‘human’ S/S 2026 men’s show in Milan
-
The standout shows of Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2026: Prada to Dunhill
Wallpaper* picks the very best of Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2026, from Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ ‘light, fresh’ and ‘human’ display to Dunhill’s exploration of English dress codes
-
Milan Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2026: live updates from the Wallpaper* team
From 20-23 June, Milan Fashion Week Men’s arrives in the Italian fashion capital. Follow along for a first look at the shows, presentations and other fashion happenings, as seen by the Wallpaper* editors
-
With an ode to Italy, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake brings its brand of fashion magic to Florence’s Pitti Uomo
Marking the start of a new nomadic way of showing for the Japanese label, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake held its S/S 2026 show at Florence’s Villa Medicea della Petraia as part of Pitti Uomo last night (18 June) with a collection inspired by the colours and textures of Italy
-
What the Wallpaper* editors are looking forward to at Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2026
As Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2026 begins in Florence, the Wallpaper* style team select the moments they will be looking out for – from Jonathan Anderson’s anticipated Dior debut to outings from Wales Bonner, Kiko Kostadinov and Prada
-
50 years of Santoni, the footwear brand steeped in Italian craft, celebrated in a new book
Inside ‘Santoni Meraviglia’, a richly illustrated new tome published by Assouline that tells the story behind the Italian brand’s meticulously crafted footwear
-
‘The White Lotus’ meets La Dolce Vita: inside Mytheresa and Dolce & Gabbana’s Taormina takeover
Wallpaper* travels to Taormina, Sicily, where a two-day celebration of the latest Dolce & Gabbana x Mytheresa collaboration centred around San Domenico Palace, A Four Seasons Hotel – the filming location of ‘The White Lotus’ season two