Sew and Tell

Visit Vienna and you'll notice some very sharply dressed locals indeed. That's thanks to the thriving, edgy fashion scene in the city's 7th district, now starting to command global attention. About time!

The secret’s out. Vienna’s 7th district is a breeding ground for new fashion talent, says Katie Binns. Photography by Jakob Polacsek

When fashion stylist Lucie Lamster-Thury moved to Vienna from her native New York in 2004, it took her a while to truly discover its fashion scene. “There is no equivalent of Fifth Avenue here, and I really had my doubts about finding a fashion scene at all,” she tells me when I meet her at Vienna’s Phil (10–12 Gumpendorferstrasse, tel: +43 (0)1 581 0489, www.phil.info), a café/ bookshop/library/record store.

But that was then. Today, Lamster-Thury runs a shopping tour of the city for international visitors (www.shoppingwithlucie. com), and says she discovered what the locals already knew – that there is a stellar home-grown fashion scene centred around the city’s 7th district.

“A new shop is opening practically every month in the 7th,” she says. “It’s grown perhaps four times in size over just a few years, and there is a lot of amazing work.” Among the notable shops are Anita Steinwidder’s store Glanz & Gloria (77 Schottenfeldgasse, tel: +43 (0)650 400 6091, www.glanzundgloria.at), known for edgy collections that use damaged factory materials; and Gina Drewes (5 Lindengasse, tel: +43 (0)699 1751 0510, www.ginadrewes.com). Drewes’ work is a mixture of wearable prêt-à-porter and surreal haute couture.

One of the driving forces working to get Viennese designers like these more global attention is an organisation called Unit F. Founded in 2000, its aim is to promote the Austrian fashion industry internationally. Its role is both to spot new design talent, and to offer practical assistance. Unit F director Andreas Oberkanins explains: “We filter through the extraordinary amount of talent in Austria and support designers over the long-term, providing them with financial aid, as well as contacts and networking opportunities, to help them establish themselves. The aim is not to compete with Paris or London – that’s not possible – but to try to create an alternative fashion city.” He says his biggest frustration is with some of the larger stores:“Austrian retailers do not stock Austrian fashion. Something has to be done about that.”

As for how the new, young talents emerge in the first place, he adds: “A lot of the up-and-coming designers graduated from the University of Applied Arts, where two decades ago a system of guest professorship was set up, and so you had guest teachers including Helmut Lang, Raf Simons and Vivienne Westwood leaving their mark.” The graduate show from the University of Applied Arts fashion is one of the highlights of Unit F’s annual Festival for Fashion and Photography (see box overleaf).

I leave Oberkanins and go to meet fashion designer Anna Aichinger, a 2005 graduate of the University of Applied Arts, in her atelier on Weihburggasse. It’s an airy, high-ceilinged building down an old, narrow, very quiet street in the 1st district, just off Kärntnerstrasse. She tells me how receiving advice as a student from world-famous Belgian designer Raf Simons influenced her approach. “There was an emphasis on fashion being business. It was made clear that you can live and work in Vienna, but you have to think internationally, as well as an Austrian.” With that in mind, she doesn’t feel any need to leave her home country. “You can have a great life here, enjoy cheap rents and be a mere two hours from London, Paris and Milan. Strategically, it is a good place to be.”

Aichinger is convinced that Austrian designers offer something unique. “There’s a contemporary translation of our great heritage of craftsmanship – the use of materials and quality of workmanship. You can see that in the work of most fashion designers here. There is an emphasis on quality over quantity. Quality matters – that is part of Austrian culture.”

Someone who shares her sentiments is Barbara Denk, founder of 7tm (www.7tm. at), a fashion community in the 7th district that brings together 36 shops, and helps to market the district as a retail hot spot. “Historically it was a textile trading district, you can tell by the street names,” she says. “The fashion scene has established itself in the last six years or so and hasn’t stopped growing. Disaster Clothing [19 Kirchengasse, tel: +43 (0)1 524 1409, www.disasterclothing. at] and Gloom [75 Neubaugasse, tel: +43 (0)1 523 8657, www.gloom.at] were the ones that started it all. They were the first shops in the district who sold Austrian fashion and small international designer brands.”

But why did things start to happen here rather than in another part of the city? “The district has always attracted a certain type of tenant – students, Green Party voters, liberal types – and Neubaugasse has always been home to great shops. Its proximity to Mariahilferstrasse, the city’s main shopping street, and the 1st district, and the benefit of lower rents, made it fertile ground for such developments.”

As for whether the 7th can continue to grow at this rate, Denk is unsure. “On the one hand rents are not getting cheaper, which could affect things; on the other hand there are still plenty of empty premises in the district and the market for quality, sustainable fashion is growing.” She is equally philosophical about Vienna’s international fashion standing. “Vienna is not a fashion city but it is becoming more professional,” she says.

Something Denk and Lamster-Thury would both like to see is more international buyers at Vienna Fashion Week. On the positive side, Lamster-Thury points out: “Much more thought goes into how Vienna Fashion Week is done now than a few years ago. It is now held in the MuseumsQuartier rather than the inaccessible Messe, and anyone can go and buy a ticket. There is so much talent and potential here, and the fashion scene is still somehow underground, a well-kept secret. Vienna is special in that sense. I feel privy to something that is not yet global, that is unique and has a certain something. It’s a wonderful world to discover.”

TOP FIVE

Shops to check out in the 7th district

LENA HOSCHEK
Quality materials, prints, folk patterns and 1950s silhouettes, fl avoured with rockabilly attitude.
17 GUTENBERGGASSE, TEL: +43 (0)129 32203, WWW.LENAHOSCHEK.COM

INA KENT
Browse the range of beautiful leather bags, which have a cool, understated style.
46 LINDENGASSE, TEL: +43 (0)699 1954 1090, WWW.INAKENT.AT

TIBERIUS
This concept store sells beautiful clothes made from fun materials including PVC.
2 LINDENGASSE, TEL: +43 (0)1 522 0474, WWW.TIBERIUS.AT

BE A GOOD GIRL
Both a hip hair salon and boutique stocking Austrian and international designers.
5A WESTBAHNSTRASSE, TEL: +43 (0)1 524 4728, WWW.BEAGOODGIRL.COM

ULLIKO
This Viennese brand only works with black, white and red materials – with striking results.
7 KIRCHENGASSE, TEL: +43 (0)699 1284 3922, WWW.ULLIKO.COM

FASHION DIARY

21 MAY
LIFE BALL
This glitzy fundraiser for HIV and AIDS projects always features a fashion show. Versace, Vivienne Westwood and Diane von Furstenberg have all shown here in the past, and this year it’s the turn of Dsquared2.
WWW.LIFEBALL.ORG

27–29 MAY
MODEPALAST
For a couple of days each year see the city’s “biggest boutique” – a fashion trade fair including shows, awards and parties.
WWW.MODEPALAST.COM

6–11 JUN
FESTIVAL FOR FASHION AND PHOTOGRAPHY
The Austrian Fashion Awards are one of this festival’s highlights.
WWW.FASHION-FESTIVAL.AT

13–18 SEP
VIENNA FASHION WEEK
The Austrian fashion event of the year, natch.
WWW.MQVIENNAFASHIONWEEK.COM

30 SEP–9 OCT
VIENNA DESIGN WEEK
Celebrating Austrian creative work in the fields of product, furniture, industrial and experimental design.
WWW.VIENNADESIGNWEEK.AT