LINIERT
spring 2009


About seasonal trends and
the influence of architecture on fashion

Barcelona born (1966) fashion designer Ivon Gasque and the Viennese architect Christian Kollarovits (born 1967) have founded the own label 'Liniert' to realize their ideas of art: fashion that is not created for special settings or seasonal trends; architecture and interior design which are developed from looking at the strange things, the irregularities in life to find the truth.

Question: How would you translate 'Liniert' into English?

Liniert: Maybe “lined” but actually in the sense of “linear”.

Question: Ivon Gasque und Christian Kollarovits, why have you chosen this name for your label?

Liniert: 'Liniert' stands for the attempt of putting in order or 'in line' the abundance of questions and challenges that the design process entails, but also that what daily life holds.


fig.: Modewerkstatt 'Liniert', Winter 2008. Ivon Gasque's fashion collections are not seasonal. You will find in her shop pieces from several years. Her signature design are pieces made of 'voluminous' textiles used in sport or architecture such as neopren or sponges.


Question: Ivon, your collections are not seasonal. What’s your focus when you are designing the pieces?

Ivon Gasque: If you adhere to the principle, that every act requires a motive, than the annual changing of collections is the worst imaginable of all the motives and reminds one more of the embarrassed person who is scratching himself without having an itch. The world of fashion is mainly turning around the principle of entertainment through constant changes.

If you resist or evade this tuned rhythm, the way is free for a more honest motive research, that happens above all in a functional–aesthetic environment, so for me the mode of research is, anywhere, where the purpose of a garment is established as an object of protection and or as an object of exhibition.

In fact it’s interesting to follow the human needs with regard to functional clothing, but since they don’t change every half year, the aesthetic, the fashion aspect has a great potential. This aesthetic layer is generated by personal feelings, social influences or abstract topics.

Question: Christian, you are the architect of ‘Liniert’. Why is architecture influencing fashion (defined as the clothing, hair style, face style we are wearing)?

Christian Kollarovits: We are always talking about the influence of fashion by architecture, if the clothes contain a high level of corporality coupled with a certain geometric tendency – but, there is no essential influence I think. Fashion gets its inspiration from every possible topic, or should I better say, that fashion exploits every possible topic?

The issue that units both fields are the design of a skin, which forms a body or wraps it, a body that then interacts with its environment. Also the reference to social topics is a unifying element, in which the fashion because its reaction rate has the clear advantage in comparison with the clumsy architecture, that operates more statically.

Question: Do you know an example for architecture which was influenced by fashion?

Christian Kollarovits: Apart from the increasing use of textile in architecture, that points more towards a material-based interest than towards a fashion-based, I don’t have any knowledge of a direct influence.

But the fascination of architects for fashion – beyond their popular black uniform – is more distinctive than you might believe. Well-known fashion designers as for example Gianni Versace or Gianfranco Ferré have graduated with degrees in architecture before they moved to fashion. Examples of architects like Wolf Prix of Coop Himmelblau, (who in an entrance examination for students to enter the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria) asking students to design suits for the “Red Hot Chilli Peppers” are a lot. Both fields have its own fascination and parallel occupations can be really stimulating!

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fig.: Architektur und Designwerkstatt 'Liniert',
Modeshop Ivon Gasque at the Sechskrügelgasse 2 in Vienna, 2006