Austrian Fashion

Hartmann Nordenholz, Photo from Unit F's Modebuch

Austrian Fashion seems to be expanding its reach. This is undoubtedly, in part, due to the protracted support from cultural institution like UNIT F, which was founded specifically to promote Austrian fashion together with the countries’ solid training grounds—and particularly Vienna’s University of Applied Arts and its conjoining museum the MAK (the Museum for Applied Art).

Among the fast-establishing Austrian designers is Ute Ploier—one of the finalists of the Swiss Textiles Award. Mario Schwab, who won the award—albeit strongly associated with London—counts some Austrian relations as well: His father was Austrian and he began his fashion training in Salzburg.

There are many other designers who enrich the Austrian fashion scene: Wendy & Jim, Carol Christian Poell (who is based in Milan), Claudia Rosa Lukas, Fabric Interseason, Rosa Mosa, and Hartman Nordenholz.

Many of the designers can be found under one roof in a showroom in Paris sponsored by the Austrian government on occasion of the city’s fashion week. Additionally, two books on Austrian fashion have been recently published: the Austrian Fashion Guide and Modebuch, which places current Austrian design in the context of the city’s museums, schools and in relation to previous decades and particularly the work of Helmut Lang, who wrote the book’s introduction.

Another way to keep up-to-date with new developments is to sign up to Unit F’s newsletter “Short-Cuts.”

Francesca

Summer Readings

Serah-Marie McMahon of Worn Journal interviewed Fashion Projects for the Indie style issue of Broken Pencil—a Montreal based journal on independent publishing. Besides the interview, the current Broken Pencil issue (which is mainly available in the US via their website) covers topics ranging from the Houston-based guerrilla knitting collective Knitta Please to a history of indie typography. Further summer reading is provided by the fourth issue of Worn Journal (the Montreal-based style magazine), which features, among other things, an interview with Caroline Weber and an article on Sonya Delaunay. Also of notice is an article on slow fashion written by Kate Fletcher and published by the Ecologist. (For an excerpt of it see below.)

http://fashioninganethicalindustry.org/!file/factsheet13slowfashionkatefletcher.pdf/

Worn Fashion Journal

Worn, Issue 3

Reading Broken Pencil—the definitive guide to zines and underground publishing—we came across a review of Worn, a Montreal-based publication which sets out to deliver "intelligent and insightful content dealing with style, clothing and wearing." This journal covers "independent designers, fashion history, subculture studies, personal musings, and relationships between art, music, film and fashion."

The current issue looks quite promising, as it covers topics ranging from the history of Bakelite to the the styles of Weimar Germany to bark cloth, and counts ROM curator Alexandra Palmer among its contributors.

Francesca

Craftivity: A new book by Supernaturale!

Craftivity is a new book written by Tsia Carson, founder of the site Supernaturale and a veteran of the alternative craft movement. Ironically, with its beautifully illustrated quirky craft projects, it’s an inspiration to get offline for a while and engage again with the materiality of things. For more on supernaturale and their recent projects, go to supernaturale.com

The Lowbrow Reader #5 out!

Drawing by Mike Reddy

Also just out is the 5th issue of the Lowbrow Reader (edited by one of our contributors, Jay Ruttenberg). An intelligent take on comedy of all kinds, the current issue features a piece on the standup work of Joan Rivers, as well as an illustrated interview with Jack White of the White Stripes (which takes place in the Fashion Projects office!). To find out more visit the site www.lowbrowreader.com