The world can’t erase your fantasy. Such is true for Weekend Max Mara’s latest iteration of their Signature Collection, this time looking to multi-hyphenated Austrian creative Arthur Arbesser to co-design a fantastical universe of European sophistication.
For the uninitiated, Arbesser is a multi-hyphenate designer whose methodology draws on his Austrian upbringing and Italian flair—a cocktail of Western European references that oscillates between heritage, tradition, cultivation and contemporary taste.
This collection, entitled ‘Phantasie’, is very much a love letter to Vienna. One that embraces Weekend Max Mara’s signature causal outdoors sensibility but is infused with soft poetry and perennial fluidity. Qualities Arbesser attributes to his immersion in Austria’s cultural scene including theatre performances, ballet, and operas.
It’s this adoration for performing arts that kindled this creation, with Arbesser turning to the Secession art movement of the early 1900s to hone this vision. The Vienna Secession was a radical collective of creatives, yet despite this bourgeois dispossession, the group’s act of rebelliously eschewing convention proves it to be a pertinent fit for the brand.
Writing in a press release, Weekend Max Mara describes the inspiration as “freedom of movement typical of dance clothes that underscore a sense of liberty and comfort in full compliance with the Weekend Max Mara values.”
Arbesser’s penchant for unfussy silhouettes serves as a blank palette for geometric prints or romantic landscapes to be splashed onto. Guided by the winds of change, the collection embraces the individuality of the Max Mara woman with elegance and ease. Moulded by deconstructed shapes, the collection harnesses high-octane hues and buoyant prints that replicate that of an oil painting. Viennese modernism is also explored through enduring cubed configurations that emulate the checks and stripes observed throughout the city.
The lexicon of European experimentalism is on full display, with the Weekend Max Mara and Arbesser’s lofty vision of artisan design anchored by quiet glamour. But don’t let the name fool you, despite this being designed by the ‘Weekend’, the pieces are for every day.
This story first appeared on GRAZIA International.