Don’t be fooled by the vintage hairdos — Arthur Arbesser’s lookbook imagery wasn’t shot in 1976. That was the year when the designer’s seasonal muse Monika Kaesser, a Viennese shop owner, opened her knickknack emporium, which she ran for almost three decades.
Kaesser’s refined gestures, dignified posture and formal manners have always radiated charm, Arbesser offered, at least since he discovered the store as a little boy and perused every glass vase, turn-of-the-century silver trinket tray and sophisticated costume jewelry so stylishly displayed at the shop, marveling at the owner’s good taste.
“Nothing was out of place at the store, never too many or too few pieces. It was not a luxury [shop], but so chic” he said.
A genuinely curious person, Arbesser drew from a fortuitous encounter turned into a daylong conversation with her as the starting point for his fall collection, aimed at recreating the lady’s manners and fashion style, via Arbesser’s artsy vein.
Airy opera coats with ruffled hems in silk duchesse, Kaesser’s favorite fabric, were layered over A-line skirts; glassware drawn from the shop — including a green stem glass set the Arbesser family owns — was turned into prints on a pleated skirt and matching shirt, which reminded one of early Paul Smith motifs.
The designer’s signature colorful checkerboard motif was repurposed on a ruched tank dress and hand-painted tulle blazer atop a same-pattern shirt, or as handsome jacquard knitwear in fuzzy mohair.
Naif geometric patterns done with the potato printing technique in vogue in the 1920s, the same era most of Kaesser’s trinkets came from, decorated turtlenecks and bralettes used as layering pieces. They came from a place of true affection.
