Sustainability at Pitti: Arbo

Sustainability at Pitti:
Arbo

Editorial

Edition 100

08.07.2021

Arbo is Redressing Menswear

Sustainability at Pitti is a series of interviews that celebrate fashion’s climate-conscious innovators. By providing a platform for the designers that put sustainability at the core of their brand, we hope to inspire and lead a wave of change within our industry, helping us all to push for a better future together.

Chloé Pariente never set out to start a “sustainable brand,” it just happened naturally. When she started her label, Arbo, at the age of 20, the self-taught Parisian designer was rather on a mission to inject a new lease of life into the world of menswear.

Playing with materials also lead to her discovery of responsible production practices. All fabrics used in her collections are sourced from other brands that may have otherwise discarded them. “Recovering stocks from major fashion houses allows access to materials designed with great care,” she says, “[and] a reduced carbon footprint, and to participate in our way of recycling.”

To learn more about what “our way” means in Pariente’s words, we sat down with the designer ahead of her SS22 collection preview. Find our conversation below.

Tell us about the new collection, “Can’t take my eyes off you.” What's the story here?

« Can’t take my eyes off you » is a collection that tells the story of a man full of sex appeal. Like an idol surrounded by his groupies, this man is full of confidence yet very humble. He is not a show-off and he is not interested in attracting attention. But he knows that wherever he goes, men and women will turn around, [they] can’t stop looking at him. Something magnetic attracts them, something in his attitude, the way he moves, the way he wears his clothes.
His clothes are made of noble materials, everything is in the details, [some] we can not see from the outside. Everything looks simple while everything is very sophisticated. The buttons are crystals and sometimes, on the shirts, they are replaced by staples that show the skin. He wears dresses directly on the skin, leaving his legs and arms bare. Women wear dresses to match him, dresses that adjust in the neck and repeat the detail of the loops of his pants.
He looks so good in his clothes that everyone wants to look like him. And as they look at him, they can’t help but think, “I can’t take my eyes off you.”

The sleeveless trench is core to SS22, can you talk us through the symbolism and inspiration behind its design?

The sleeveless trench coat is actually a dress for men. For this season, I wanted to create a dress that could also be worn as a trench coat. I know that it is not yet obvious for men to wear dresses, and I liked the idea that this dress could leave the possibility to be one or not.

Why is creating dresses for men so integral to Arbo’s DNA?

I started thinking about the brand I wanted to create when I was 20, after my graphic design studies. One day, something clicked; it was summer, I was on a beach in Greece with Sebastien, my boyfriend. When he got dressed to leave, I thought it took a long time, which was surprising since he usually waits for me to finish getting ready. I realized that I was waiting for him because his clothes were really not appropriate for the situation. He was all tangled up in a sarong sticky with seawater and full of sand. Then I saw myself with my dress floating in the wind, with my legs and arms breathing, and I thought "why couldn't you wear a dress like me? It would be so much easier.” [From that] Arbo was born.

You're giving us a lot of skin moments, too. Is this a response to pandemic-induced global seclusion (hopefully) coming to an end? Is SS22 the summer of sex?

I make clothes for men as I would make clothes for women, in a way that highlights the body and its assets. The male body is very sexy: shoulders, arms, chest, buttocks, back. I try to put forward all these specificities and that also passes by plays of transparency and naked skin. I think that today more than ever we want to discover ourselves — literally and figuratively!

Your collections use deadstock fabric leftover from couture brands. Has eliminating waste always been a goal in your work? What do you do with the leftover/waste fabrics left over by your own production?

Being a sustainable brand has never been a goal for me. Arbo is a brand that questions the men's wardrobe in 2020. Living in 2020 also means — necessarily — being sustainable. So I found a way to be sustainable by recovering fabrics from big houses because it presented itself to me that way.
As we produce all the pieces in Paris and only in pre-order, we have very few fabric scraps. But I had already thought about it and I'm thinking of proposing a series of scarves created with our fabric scraps. Only unique pieces.

Your collections use deadstock fabric leftover from couture brands. Has eliminating waste always been a goal in your work? What do you do with the leftover/waste fabrics left over by your own production?

It really depends on the season. I don't want to limit the quantities but only create in a coherent way, without being imposed a minimum number of pieces to present. I prefer to propose a few pieces extremely worked and detailed if I feel like it, or on the contrary a profusion of clothes if I feel the need. The important thing is that it remains sincere and coherent.

How do you pair your awareness about the fashion industry's climate impact with designing and creating new products?

I think that creating is an essential thing. As far as I’m concerned, I am now sensitive to the creation of clothing, so I try to do it in the right way and consistent with the world around me.

What are the biggest obstacles you face as a designer in regards to creating responsible collections?

To me, the biggest obstacle comes from a paradox: We have to make a lot of pieces in many different fabrics to compose a collection. At the same time, we can't invest in a lot of different rolls upstream [aka early on in the production process] to make sure they're still there once the collection is presented. The advantage of [buying leftover] fabric [from major fashion houses] is that we are sure to have it permanently. We are not obliged to buy several tens of meters in one go — there, it is riskier, it is necessary to make choices, negotiations ... it is part of the game.

How do you feel about seasonal showcases? Do you think we still need to present collections in such a way?

I don't know. There's something exciting about being part of this system and at the same time, I don't feel totally in tune with the rhythm. During the first lockdown, when everything stopped, I felt like I was finally breathing. It was as if I had been underwater for 8 months. It allowed me to take a step back from the way I wanted to present things.

How do you feel about the industry's current sustainability efforts? What change do you hope to see?

I can see that people are more open than before, which is quite reassuring. I think that when we all get used to pre-ordering and waiting to receive our clothes, the planet will be better.

Do you have any top tips or words of advice for brands and designers looking to be more responsible in their work?

Just do it. Nothing else to say.