Vienna Fashion Week
fall 2009

Vienna Insight by publisher Karin Sawetz, Sept 2009


Tour de la Mode Vienne

In the week from 21 to 27 September 2009, several fashion events and parties have invited to amazing evenings in Vienna.

Let's start on Monday, the 21st September.

I had to ride on my scooter along the Ringstrasse two times to find the entrance street to 'The Ring' hotel. It is one of the newest and most stylish hotels of the city at this time; that's not so difficult if you engage marketing people who have worked for other successful Viennese design hotels in the years before such as Roland Hamberger, the new director of sales & marketing for 'The Ring' who was already at the Carrera presentation of the new helmets, goggles and sunglasses when I parked my bike near the 'Drings' bar of the hotel.

Austrian ski stars such as Stefan Görgl, fashion journalists who come directly from the Armani show, sports journalist with a huge knowledge about Super-G, slalom etc., designers such as Thomas Kirchgrabner or Martina Rogy (she has just released a new collection that is exclusively available online), have been called to the sporty-fashionable presentation. You can't imagine how many questions occur when fashion meets sports! It was an entertaining evening with interesting talk partners; almost everybody had to tell something that was new. But such as the Viennese use to say: 'One has always the 'Bummerl' (translated 'bad card')', the models in the upheated bar windows get the flash lights and not the most brilliant questions. Like the model who told me that it's not the helmet why it is hot in the windows; the Carrera helmet has a good air system.

On the next day, it was Tuesday the 22nd September, I joined the invitation of Wolfgang Karolinsky to his annual party in the inner yard of the Palais Breuner where he has the showroom of his company WOKA Lamps Vienna. Wo(lfgang)Ka(rolinsky) produces lightning products from original designs of the Wiener Werkstätte artist Josef Hoffmann, the Viennese architect Adolf Loos, as well as contemporary designers like Matteo Thun,... to name a few. On the website www.woka.at you will find extensive designer info pages with biographies of some of the most important artists and architects of the last around 100 years. The annual party is legendary because of the sausages 'Frankfurter' which are served every year. If you hear anybody in Vienna naming the 'Frankfurter' 'Wiener Würstchen' (Viennese sausage), you know that he or she is a German. It happened so much on this evening that I would have to report the story in another article; such as about the Design & Art initiative of gallery owner Lukas Feichtner and his guests from Poland, artists from the Foundation for Promoting Contemporary Art in the representative rooms of Palais Breuner's first floor www.designpalais.com where the Tour de la Mode Vienne ended for me on this day.

On the next two days I decided to make sport in the evening to prepare myself for the last three days of the week, especially the MQ Vienna Fashion Week which started on 24 and runs until 27 September.

Thanks to the internet I had the chance to get an insight into the fashion show of Gina Drewes and Tiberius on 24th September although I didn't attend the show in real. The designers have invited with the words: “barROCK a symbiosis of Prèt à Porté designer Gina Drewes and the fetish fashion of TIBERIUS (Valenzuela-Abril). An exciting mix of sensuality and desire. Far away from dusty wig and Alm-Chic barROCK initiates a new era and refuses to use antiquated stereotypes.”

Video youtube.com/watch?v=IoQyPWgOkJ4: Fashionshow Gina Drewes & Tiberius on 24 September 2009 during the MQ Vienna Fashion Week.

Marcos Valenzuela, born in Columbia (Bogota), is the designer of the Tiberius collections. Marcos is a trained opera singer, tenor. More about the fashion-fetish shop Tiberius www.fashionoffice.org/collections/2009/tiberius2-2009.htm.

In Vienna living Gina Drewes was born in Germany and grew up in Carinthia (Austria). She has studied Textile Design at the Spengergasse, the country's school with the longest tradition in design and industry. It was founded in 1758 by Empress Maria Theresia (Habsburg era; Maria Theresia is the mother of Marie Antoinette) to make the Austrian textile industry more competitive. From 2000 to 2003 Gina Drewes was trained in Fashion Design at the Fashion School Vienna in Chateau Hetzendorf. The textile and fashion designer presents her current fall/winter collection 2009/10 with a photo story showing a mother and daughter www.ginadrewes.com.

On 25th September the wonderful late-summer weather was holding on. Once again, I preferred to take my motor bike for driving into the city. On this day, a friend accompanied my fashion tour to the MQ Vienna Fashion Week and the supermodel gala with the final voting for the next top model. My (male) escort annotated the show of the finalists. Unbelievable how much talent non-professionals have when it comes to decide if a girl looks good!

The MQ is one of the largest cultural areas worldwide. The former stables of the royal horses are built parallel to the Ringstrasse nearby the former residence of the emperors. The fashion shows are held in front of the Museums Quartier in a tent. Inside the MQ, the designers are presenting the fall/winter 2009/10 collections in three halls. There I met the designers from Liniert who have presented the 'Krachkollektion' and Bi_Pone. Bi_Pone invited me to the next big fashion event in the city, the Styles Design Lounge on 30 September at 19.00 at the Radisson Palais Hotel. By the way: the Radisson Palais Hotel is on the Ringstrasse too.

The Tour de la Mode Vienne will be continued! Fortunately Vienna's geography is easy for bikers: it's a small city with much circulation on the ring.



Karin Sawetz is journalist, media researcher and fashion scientist (Mag. Dr. phil.). > sawetz.com

Source: Original article with images and video on https://www.confashion.com/fw2009/viennaweek9-2009.htm.


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