In a fashion world ruled by quiet luxury and minimalism, Brooklyn designer Abigail Sarikas offers something richer and more daring. Her label, Mater Suspirium, blends surrealism, quilting, and the paintings of Van Gogh and Kandinsky into striking, wearable art. Each piece is designed to start conversations and inspire boldness.
The name reflects this sense of mystery. Taken from Thomas De Quincey’s Suspiria de Profundis, it references the “Mother of Sighs,” a spirit of quiet despair. Sarikas loved the way De Quincey transformed sadness into beauty. “I fell in love with how mysterious this sounded, and the way he turns our human sadnesses into something elevated and beautiful,” she says. That tension between darkness and beauty defines her brand.
Art is more than inspiration for Sarikas, it is the foundation of her design practice. “Surrealism has always resonated with me. I gravitate toward art and poetry that tap into something beyond our normal existence,” she explains. Van Gogh’s brushstrokes and Kandinsky’s abstractions reappear in her clothing through quilting and sculptural motifs. A Van Gogh painting might be reframed on a dress, while Kandinsky’s shapes inspire texture stitched into fabric.
Her goal is never replication. “When I use a famous piece of artwork, my goal is to honor the artist and what they created, and find a way to make it even more visible. I carry these beautiful paintings around in my heart, why shouldn’t I also wear them for all the world to see?”
Sarikas avoids surface-level prints. Instead, she uses quilting to give depth and presence. “Printing a hand on a shirt is less interesting to me than quilting something in the shape of a hand and hand-stitching that onto clothing in an evocative and sexy way,” she explains. This detail-oriented process is what makes her approach to quilting in contemporary fashion unique.
The road to Mater Suspirium was long. Sarikas began in finance, working at Morgan Stanley while dreaming of fashion. At night, she studied design at Parsons, rushing from a full workday to three-hour evening classes. “That period was tough mentally and physically. I barely slept, but I remember feeling so excited to be learning what I loved,” she recalls.
Her former career left a mark. Sharp lines, dark palettes, and oversized blazers nod to her corporate past. Finance also taught her caution. “It definitely made me risk averse, really looking at all the ways building a brand or following a creative dream like this can go wrong financially,” she says. But the pull of creativity was stronger. “After so many years in a field I didn’t love, I realized it’s better to have tried and failed than to never have tried at all.”
Sarikas describes her aesthetic as “just dark enough, just surprising enough, and just different enough.” Many silhouettes lean minimal: waist-cinched dresses, tailored blazers, and sculpted black fabrics. But she always includes an element of surprise, a quilted shimmer of gold, a flash of skin, or an iconic motif. “I want everything to feel like it’s just on the edge of what someone might normally wear, maybe it’s a bit funkier than what they typically pick up, but the silhouette is so flattering they go for it anyway.”
This balance sets Mater Suspirium apart from other emerging designer fashion labels. In a market dominated by neutral luxury, Sarikas offers emotional connection. “If you have a choice between a plain black dress and one with a Van Gogh painting sewn into it, I like to think that people might choose the one that sparks some feeling in them,” she says.
Sarikas envisions future collaborations with painters, transforming brushstrokes into stitches and flat images into textured landscapes. She hopes her clothing continues to inspire confidence and connection. “I want people to feel like they are exactly themselves, just a little bit elevated.”
With every piece, Abigail Sarikas proves that clothing can be art. Mater Suspirium merges surrealism, quilting, and art history with the modern woman’s wardrobe. The result is a brand that doesn’t just dress the body, it changes the way we see ourselves and the world around us.
