Yamil Arbaje: Clothing as the Personal and Political

The designer, who comes from the Dominican Republic, won a full scholarship to Parsons allowing him to move to New York to study fashion. However, he stayed close to his home country through his work with an approach that is as anthropological as it is political. “I think the goal for me in every collection is to learn and really look deeply into history, clothes, social behaviours, and the cultural components of the society that I am studying,” he explains. History is the thread that ties the collection together. Working class communities in the 1960s informed the aesthetic, tailoring and attitude of the collection.

“All my collections have political topics or concepts involved in them and I always look into archives.”

“All my collections have political topics or concepts involved in them and I always look into archives,” he says. For Arbaje, fashion has never existed in a vacuum. It’s inseparable from the culture and society in which it exists. He was able to explore this multidisciplinary approach during his time at Parsons where he took classes in cinema, social practice and African art alongside his fashion studies.

“When I analyse historical or political archives, I see the details in those moments,” the designer says. “I look at the silhouettes. For my thesis I was analysing and studying archives from the 1960s to research the main components of the cultural shift of the dictatorship we were having at that moment. The belts, collars and pockets of the suits were very interesting and that was because they did these suits at the local tailor and they had their own manner of doing this.”

Arbaje took his own unique approach to tailoring in creating his graduate collection. The form and function of clothing shifts under his hand. T-shirts are political posters. “I like big pictures,” he explains. “I like the photo covering a big part of the t-shirt because it makes me think of a political poster. I don’t see that as a printed t-shirt but as a poster in a t-shirt.” He combines conceptual ideas about the weight carried, literally and metaphorically, by the working class with innovative shapes, such as, “an oversized shoulder pad that represents the hunched over posture of the working class due to the weight they carry. When you wear this coat you will look like a person who is carrying lots of things,” he explains.

“I think it’s a waste of money and resources to do a physical fashion show. It’s only big brands and corporations that can really make the most of them. Digital fashion shows benefit small brands.”

In lieu of a graduate show, the designer produced a series of black and white images, shot in his apartment on his iPhone. He even went as far as shaving the sides of his head, stepping into a fictional character to create truly atmospheric images. It’s hard to imagine a show could have evoked the same feeling, so Arbaje was not disappointed by the cancellation of his graduate show. In fact, he’s excited about the potential that digital alternatives can offer. Unlike the traditional fashion show which is ephemeral by its very nature, “Photographs are timeless,” Arbaje says. “I think it’s a waste of money and resources to do a physical fashion show. It’s only big brands and corporations that can really make the most of them. Digital fashion shows benefit small brands. There are a lot of things to explore right now because we have been doing physical fashion shows in the same format since the 90s.”

Of course it’s not just the fashion show that has gone digital. This year most of our interactions have taken place through a screen making digital communication more important than ever. Arbaje uses his Instagram as a mood board to communicate his influences and interests to his followers. He posts “a mix of what I see on the street, what I see on the internet, what I do.” It’s like a sneak preview to what he plans to create next, “like dots to connect everything.”

He might take his inspiration from history, but Arbaje’s work is also deeply personal. He thinks that working from a personal place makes the final product purer. “It doesn’t make sense to me to start doing research about existentialism if you don’t feel connected with that philosophy,” he explains. “In my collection, I noticed that it was very autobiographical, about when I came here to New York and how I was feeling.”

“I like to think, how can this model be a character? How I approach the collection is to get a look and feel of the characters, the colours and the mood and that helps me to create a fictional character.”

As the photographs of his thesis collection prove, Arbaje takes a narrative approach to his work. It’s a cinematic attitude he picked up from Latin American films. “I like to think, how can this model be a character? How I approach the collection is to get a look and feel of the characters, the colours and the mood and that helps me to create a fictional character.”

To sum up why fashion is endlessly exciting for him, Arbaje says that, “It’s good to put your vision into the world of how you see the world or how you see menswear, how you think about masculinity, how you think about womenswear, how you translate your interests into the clothes. Fashion is like a platform to show what you think and how you think.”