nearly all-digital edition this week. Only one
designer — Daniel Del Core, marking his brand’s
debut — held a live runway show for a small
number of guests.
While the bustle of live shows with the parade of
itinerant fashionistas decamping from New York
to London, Milan and finally Paris was missed,
designers also were stimulated by the slower
pace of the pandemic-era fashion cycle.
Austrian designer Arthur Arbesser shrank his
collection to just 25 looks, which he presented in
visits to his Milan studio and video calls, opting
out of a digital runway show.
For the creations, he upcycled textiles from
previous collections that had been stashed in
a studio cubbyhole. The designer revitalized
them either by printing a new design on the
other side, in the case of a pretty pleated skirt,
or printing over the original with a different
pattern, in the case of a black architectural
detailing over a striped cotton.
Arbesser said the enforced quiet of the COVID-
19-era restrictions, along with the necessity of
saving money, pushed other creative forces to
the fore. He and his team created a patchwork
mini-dress out of cotton, silk and technical
nylon, and they experimented with Shibori
hand-dying for a wool mini skirt.
The collection bears Arbesser’s love of prints,
this season’s inspired by an actual painter’s
palette that he picked up at a flea market, which
he mashes up with geometrical patterns and
materials that range from soft silk jersey to wool
to knits.
“I felt it was important to keep writing this story,
my little story, keep adding chapters,” Arbesser