WIENER LINIEN
Uniform Relaunch 2010

Vienna Insight by publisher Karin Sawetz, April 2010
Karin Sawetz is journalist, media researcher and fashion scientist (Mag. Dr. phil.). sawetz.com

The realization of design

On 20 April 2010, Vienna's public transport operator 'Wiener Linien' (tram, underground train, bus) has invited to the catwalk presentation of the new uniforms designed by students of the fashion school Michelbeuern into a Viennese underground station in the second district, the Leopoldstadt. I couldn't attend the event, but the next day in the morning while drinking my coffee, eating my toast with cheese and strawberries, blueberries and grapes, I stumbled in a newspaper about a picture of the new dresses that make me think of my time in fashion school.

I was trained two years long at the higher-level secondary college Herbststrasse Wien for the fashion and clothing industry. The Herbststrasse is very similar to Michelbeuern; it offers the same school and college education courses. I don't know how often I had to go with my creations to the technical dean because I had developed patterns from the tailoring system Müller München too creatively, I even had to leave the school several times and continued my education only by begging the school director on the next morning; by the way: later we had a good relationship. Probably because I was the college-student who spent the most time with her.

One day, a secretary from the school office commanded me to the director. Usually, I visited the director after problems with the technical dean or the teachers. I asked the messenger about the reason; she told me it has something to do with my sketches for a competition. I had painted a story about a woman who was driving to a filling station where a man waited; the last sketch has shown her in his arms; he had a naked upper body and she had her eyes half closed and in a speech balloon she said: "Il me plait" which means translated from French as much as "I like him". Leaving the school because of breaking the rules of tailoring or manufacturing is one thing; but being kicked out because of dirty sketches was not intended.

This was in 1990, everybody loved my sketches, I was awarded with the first prize for the design of the male work trousers for the OMV filling stations (OMV is Central Europe's leading oil and gas group) and I finished the education. The trousers hade been produced by Austrian manufacturers; without my technical support for pattern and manufacturing, which had been realized by the class of the 'Direktricen' (a special education for designers/model makers who additionally make the pattern and are responsible for the manufacturing plans, especially in industrial working companies).

I was not happy that the Direktricen worked on my designs. To create the pattern, to think about manufacturing are essentials in the creative process of making clothes.

What do you think? Is the designer of the 'Wiener Linien' uniforms blessed with the realization?

fig.: Presentation of the new 'Wiener Linien'-uniforms in an underground train on 20 April 2010 in Vienna (U2-station 'Stadion' at the Olympiaplatz). Photo: (C) leisuregroup.at/Jobst. The new uniforms for more than 8.000 employees will be seen by more than 84 million guests who are using the Viennese public transport services through the year.


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