... AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

mashed peas cooked by me, photograph and layout by Frau Ober

... that's the kind of healthy-looking food that will bring you through 2010 save and sound.

I'll take a little break and be travelling through South America - leaving ParisVienne alone to rest (you know, there are times in life).

Maybe 2010 will bring something new ...

dark nights

... and a last little outfit collage as we're nearing the end of the noughties (yes, ladies and gentlemen!). Black on black, as "black is the new black", as one of my editors used to say (ha, ha!). Apart from the fetichizing leather cap (I don't even know where THAT is from... I swear!) and the Cheap Monday jacket straight from Stockholm, I'd like to bring your attention to the uniquely fantastic black patent-look wellingtons which I found during a shopping frenzy in the marvellous Tokyu Hands department store...

MERRY CHRISTMAS...

Christmas time, reading time...? YOU WISH

... and a quick look at the part of my bookshelf where I put away this totally breathtakingly find from a Parisian bouquinerie UNIVERS HOMOSEXUEL * IMPUISSANCE ET FRIGIDITÉ (what a catchy title! - I'm quite afraid I'll never bring myself to reading this one) as well as the half-empty case of Benjamin's Passagenwerk and Manzoni's Promessi sposi, alongside the only book in Romanian language I own (purchased as an attempt to find out about my capacity to actually READ a longer text la româneste) - and I wonder, will there be time for me to ever read these books? Hope is the last to die, you know...

two reasons for liking CHRISTMAS

... LVMH oblige - hello, Bernard, anyone, BERNARD??? ...

THE EIGARD METHOD

... hum... lest you wonder: Lea Eigard is some kind of beauty magician whose work and precious findings I came across when I recently did some beauty-related research on the internet (yes: beauty is an important topic, everybody out there), and she apparently came up with the EVER SO POPULAR Eigard method, which consists in some kind of facial gymnastics that represent

"the single most effective guide to surgery-free, ageless beauty ever".

Don't you find, too, that this sounds just too good to be true. And I'd absolutely and instantly DIE to see some of the Hollywood celebrities who allegedly visit Lea's beauty parlour perform this fantastically efficient kind of surgery-free eternal-youth-gymnastics. Say aaaaah, and say ooooooh...

Copenhagen knitwear

... kind of sarcastic: as we're about to witness the failure of negotiations in Copenhagen and wildly sign up to international lists of supporters that try to collect digital signatures for petitions attempting to change the way things are ...


... the fashion world can sit back and relax, cos Vivienne Westwood just designed a beautiful t-shirt in collaboration with Anvil knitwear, made from recycled polyester or something (THUS: green...) - unfortunately, the pr people forgot to specify whether proceeds from the t-shirt sales will go to Rainforest Nation (the organization the collaboration wants to support), or whether the garments are just meant to be worn by militants during the climate summit...

bye bye Bahnhof bye bye

admittedly, I DID always find this part of the station a bit disgusting,
but that didn't stop me from going there to take a final snapshot.
I was far from being the only one, btw., going to Südbahnhof these
past few weeks felt a little bit like what I'd imagine a photo safari to be like...

... it's tragic, really. But okay, us Vienna people (and notably all those who grew up in the Southern part of the country) had enough time to get used to the fact that the Südbahnhof station shall be no more.

The premises were closed on Dec. 13 at midnight, and before the final destruction call, the URBAN DESTRUCTION festival will take place in this unique venue on Dec. 18, starting at 9 pm. Time to say goodbye...

Christmas time in Stockholm

... admittedly, it's neither Paris, nor Vienna, nor London - but it's STOCKHOLM - hej, you jul-lovers... Below Outlet store has a special Christmas season sale until Dec. 23, and the invitation is just too lovely - vad är det bra och trevligt...

what a book!!!

... fantastic. As if the literary world were incapable of coming up with new propositions and impulses...


Indeed, these new impulses ARE rare, and it IS difficult to come up with something (almost) totally new, and I am NOT talking about pure literary experimentalism here (I was so into experimentalism when I was at university, and now I find it really rather dull, in a way, the constant effort to define oneself through form - only think of the formal constraints that the French nouveaux romanciers inflicted upon themselves...)


... so anyhow, Leanne Shapton's fabulous book Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry is really quite something. I came across it when I listened to the astoundingly unpretentious (at least in Austrian terms) radio show (which I really and truly adore) Open Book hosted by Mariella Frostrup on BBC's Radio 4.


What Leanne does, she basically puts together an auction catalogue with all the objects that were piled up and collected throughout a fictitious relationship, the one between Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, and inventorising and cataloguing them by adding little explanatory notes as you would find them in any auction catalogue. Surprisingly, these tiny fragments from two human lifes gradually, and little by little, turn into a bigger picture.


An absolutely interesting literary proposition, and a good read, too (maybe one you'll like to conduct in parallel with a "real" novel, but mind you, not far from being a "real" novel...)...

Would you like your wedding ceremony to be like this???

... a fabulously poignant video clip produced by Vienna's Green party and starring talented "actrices" Ewa and Cécile, two very charming and breathtakingly intelligent young ladies - in Austria, thanks to a new law that finally creates some kind of legal framework for gay and lesbian relationships, a homosexual couple will have to make their status official not where heterosexual couples do, but in another administrative division which also handles license plates and dog tags - what an "original" idea of our obviously very liberal government...

10 years of work by two 37-year-olds...

... namely Viennese fashion professor Bernhard Willhelm and his partner Jutta Kraus, will be on show in the Groninger Museum from December 13 through April 11, 2010. What a good opportunity to catch up and get a good overview of the work they've done together. Looking forward to some juicy images feat. Monsieur Sagat? Be there or be square - all you fashion students out there (maybe a good opportunity to organise a joint voyage d'étudiants?)...

vanished fashion talent Walter Albini

image courtesy of Studio Galgano

... as the highly anticipated exhibition "Moda italiana" will open tonight in Vienna's quartier21/Freiraum exhibition space, my attention was caught by one of the official press images showing a model by Walter Albini. Walter Albini? ...

Walter Albini was born in 1941.
He studied fashion and costume design at the Instituto State di Bella e Moda before moving to France.
There he worked as an illustrator for various Italian magazines from 1959 to 1960. In 1960, he returned to Italy and joined Krizia where he stayed for three years.
He also did freelance designing for Callaghan.
Thereafter he produced several ready-to-wear collections for Basile. In 1965 he opened his own business for luxury sportswear.
Walter Albini was acclaimed as a formative and inspirational talent.
Working in association with avant-garde editors such as Anna Piaggi of Italian Vogue.
He was hailed as a master of casual, colourful ease. By 1971, he was presenting collections for 5 different houses each season.
Some of the houses he designed for were Callaghan and Misterfox. His career was cut short by an early death in 1983 in Milan.
via: fashionmodeldirectory.com

el potencial revolucionario de la mujer cubana...

... almost without words, actually - this truly beautiful "trouvaille" from the Communist party's flea market in Vienna some weeks ago. 't wasn't even me who found it, but I was allowed to sneak two snapshots...

very, very late autumn style

... after so many ponderings and wonderings and wanderings, here comes just a plain little late autumn style photo, headless, bodyless, as always. The jeans are n'importe quoi, the sneakers are, well, I mean you can SEE what they are, I'd like to draw your attention to (a) the cigarette pack - an empty box of chocolate cigarettes, as it were, but they FABULOUSLY remind me of the cigarettes I used to smoke in Lisbon when I lived there, was it just plain "Português"?..., and then to (b) the four sizes too big YSL wool jacket which I bought and then (after the image was taken) had changed to fit met, which it now does, but not as tremendously well as I'd have liked - DIY, does it better...

new professional profile: the ADVERTORIAL journalist

... some days ago I read a rather alarming article about journalism, the (economic) pressure on journalists and the increasing importance of pr people and official spokesmen (whose information often replaces proper research conducted by journalists) - in Die Zeit -, and so I started wondering about a new kind of journalistic profile - which I'd classify as the "advertorial" type, gradually about to replace the purely "editorial" one.

Mind you, I know how the business works and that it's not all and always just about writing whatever comes to your mind (I'm talking about fashion and beauty, by the way - let's not even think about the pressure and potential uproar in the field of politics and the distribution of power structures), but I would still like to hope that we can create contents for the reader rather than (potential) advertising clients. That's what quality newspapers do, that's what good magazines do, that's what it should be about...

It is my firm belief that catering only to the demands and wishes of marketing people and transforming oneself (as a journalist) into some kind of hybrid creature quickly does away with one's own credibility and the importance of what you've got to say. Finding a middle way is probably the best solution (compromising is a must, I guess), but meanwhile I'll always prefer the editorial side of journalism...

Veronique Branquinho for Camper

... once you've been in (or let's say: even just near...) the fashion biz for a while, you realise that - apart from the superstars that keep floating high on their inaccessible clouds (CK, KL, DK, HL, whoever...), there seems to be a nice little rotation system affecting competitions, and university chairs, and design collaborations.

To make a long story short: Vienna uni's last professor (and, alas!, bankrupt designer) Veronique Branquinho joins Vienna uni's current designer Bernhard Willhelm in the racing stable of Spanish shoemakers Camper, as she has designed a capsule collection of men's shoes that will hit the stores next spring. Who's next (there is something I could tell you, but I won't right now, and I won't do it here...), we ask ourselves...

DIY luxury (feeble attempt)

... given that I all too vividly remember the beautifully swinging Louis Vuitton runway show which I was lucky enough to witness this past October, and given that I incidentally found a charming orange foxtail (or racoon?) on one of my relaxing afternoon strolls to the nearby thrift store (so it's vintage fur, maybe that makes it a little better...?), and given that I got myself a Swedish children's rucksack, I tried out a combination of the first and the next and the latter, and voili voilà - cheap and chic, no? ...

I forgif you

... okay, so far for translatability and the impossibility to translate and wha'ever, but how else should I render "Ich Fergebe Dir" ("forgive" is "vergebe", so there is an intentional misspelling, which denotes the word as written by someone with, probably, a background of migration) in English? See? Anyhow, Bulgarian-born artist Michail Michailov has created a special, shall we call it a "roof painting" for a roof near St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna's first district.

Tricky detail: the roof painting can only be seen from the South Tower of the cathedral itself. If you want so see for your own, you can join a guided excursion (the artist will be present) which departs on the 4th floor of Das Weisse Haus this coming Saturday at 2.30 pm).

Btw, I first discovered Michailov's work in the context of an exhibition hosted by Essl Foundation - and liked it from the very beginning...

stock stock stock sale

... I'm probably the last one to post it (but since we all know: blogging is not ALWAYS about being original omg! did I just say that, actually really...???, sometimes it may be about passing things on, kind of a téléphone arabe, what's it called, ah, Chinese whispers - no? showing that you're in the loop, too, and in the know, and in the now...), but I do still post it (and plan on going there, as a matter of fact).

My darling designers Claudia Rosa Lukas, Edith A'Gay, Hartmann Nordenholz, Elfenkleid and superated sell their sample collections this Friday and Saturday at Heiligenkreuzerhof in Vienna, 12.00 - 20.00 on Friday and 12.00 - 18.00 on Saturday. Join the party, yeah yeah...

Christmas Calendar, a shiny one...

... ever since I met her (by chance, I happened to be in Graz for an interview and popped into her very inviting shop) and then caught up with her to conduct a little interview for an article about childrenswear, I much appreciate the work and taste and cosy approach of Nina Schanitz, the designer behind the label BuaMädscha and the shop Blendend in Graz (Mariahilferstrasse 24).


Now, Nina let me know (and I think I won't be able to go to Graz for the pre-Christmas season, things are so busy these days) that she opened an Advent calendar in her shop window, where 24 works by 24 artists/creatives etc. will be shown.


Not to forget about Nina's own collection, and the possibility to enrol at a sewing course - and that, ladies and gents, is the one thing to do if you want to get in tune with these hard and verrry DIY times...

Emma Bell and her take on Austrian specifics

... thank you, Emma Bell, for your refreshing contribution to this year's MQ Vienna Fashion Week (and, more precisely, the far-from-perfect opening night) - and, surprisingly, for taking back home some Austrian inspirations that seem to have found their place quite naturally in the context of this very outrageous, colourful and daring aesthetics of yours...

all images © Wolfgang Steiner

Creative Fur Award 09

... aaand the winner is: Serife Nur for Authried.


She pulled it off at this year's edition of the Creative Fur Award, another of these totally sought-after (ahum) fashion competitions.

After all, fashion starlet Thomas Kirchgrabner was "produced" by one of the previous editions (he was actually the mentor of this year's second place, Annemarie Grass for Liska). The good thing about this furry event: only skins from animals used for alimentary purposes are used. Not sure, though, whether this makes a huge difference. Whatever: the range of inspirations for these up-and-coming furmongers, I'd say, is anything from the Stone Age to Russian luxury.

3rd place: a design by Nikola Brzulovic; all images © Bernhard Berthold

And you know, why not...

Siggi Hofer, Otto Mauer, and St Stephen's Cathedral

... when Siggi Hofer received the Otto Mauer Award (paradoxically, sponsored by the diocese of Vienna), we went there and experienced this fantastic and spooky view of St Stephen's Cathedral from the courtyard of the building where the award ceremony would take place...

... and Siggi is also part of an exhibition hosted by apartment draschan, following an invitation by fortune & carter from London.

duration: nov. 28th - dec. 19th 2009, by appointment robby: +49-177-6725260 thomas: +43-699-12930710 , grüngasse 12/18, a-1050 vienna
with works by following artists:

paul brandford / robert crumb / matthias deutsch / christian eisenberger / andreas exner /michael freund / sebastian gögel / marius görner / birgit graschopf / greif & hennig / mark hammond / siggi hofer / marc hulson / harry hund / daniel jackson / ronald kölbel / phillip lammer / constantin luser / lee maelzer / hanno millesi / christine molis / ciprian muresan / katharina oder / lea asja pagenkemper / manfred peckl / katrin plavcak / lukas pusch / dennis rudolph / paul sakoilsky / georg Salner / stefan schuster / leopold schuster / eva schwab / dallas seitz / jan sledz / clarissa stadler / nadim vardag / michael wutz / klaus- dieter zimmer / bernard zösmayer & wolfgang schwarzenbrunner

George Clooney: from Nespresso to Tchibo...???

... all too vivid are my associations with George Clooney's involvement with Nespresso, since I was in charge of handling their two-million-printrun-seven-languages corporate magazine at some point and that was really something, believe you me.

Anyhow, George seems to know no limits where it comes to his commitment to coffee makers and/or distributers, since he has now agreed to dedicate his creative energy (or his assistant's creative energy, more likely) to designing a t-shirt collection or a one-off item, whatever, for Tchibo.

The collection features designs by Georgey, Wolfgang Joop (who I met just two days ago...), Donna Karan, Coldplay, Giorgio Armani and Phil Collins and is available in stores now (or very soon). The initiative benefits the Whatever It Takes charity. Well, then... Merry Christmas???...

Wendy & Jim and Haban jewellers

... Vienna's fabulous fashion duo Wendy & Jim put together a collaboration with high-end jeweller (read: haut joaillier...) Haban for the occasion of the luxury fair Luxury Please that takes place this weekend in the Austrian capital.


While I'm a little unsure as to what the exact nature of this collaboration was, I guess it's about the striped dress and not the daringly dangling earrings. If I were to make a wild guess, I'd say this collaboration is the fruit of Wendy & Jim's "Austrians of the Year" title dating back to late 2008...

NY, leek and corduroy

everything vintage except for sneakers (swoosh)

... to me, to merely think of NY City always inspires a vision of brown bags with some leek sticking out at the top and someone (Robert Redford?) wearomg a grey cotton pullover carrying it up a narrow staircase, or brown corduroy jackets with fake-fur collars - imagine how happy I was when I found just that just there. Vintage, not from L.A., for once...


And to add the last little touch of finesse, I adorned it with my Tokyo Tower pin. Kind of my jetset look...

petition for the right to choose...

... we've now got a law that previews some kind of official status for homosexual partnerships in Austria - but it's far from being perfect. Since politicians more or less openly told us that improvements would have to be made but that they wanted to go on with the project anyhow, here's a chance to sign the petition that will lead to further changes, hopefully. And they are necessary, no doubt about that...

go see LA PIVELLINA

... such a touching and yet totally unpathetic film, a wonderful feature film, an absolutely insightful metaphor of life at the margin of established society, featuring totally astounding amateur actors of all, and really all ages. Rightfully, La Pivellina by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel was a participant at the QUINZAINE DES REALISATEURS section of the Cannes film festival in 2009, and a perfect choice to open this year's VIENNALE. Now screening in - alas all too few! - Austrian cinemas...

illustrous DJ Battle

... how stylish - a DJ Battle organised by T-B A21 and HRH FvH will take place next Friday in Vienna's Ankerbrot factory. As it's a charity event (benefitting Unser_Kind), admission fee is 50 euros min., tables for ten are a trinket, at 1,000 e each. Simon de Pury, Richard Dorfmeister, Raven, Chris Brandon etc etc will rock the floor. Meanwhile, I still try to figure out why Diesel Black Gold is a partner of the event. But you know...

guilds and emblems in Salzburg

quite comme il faut chez LV

... last week I had the chance to visit the pretty jewel case that is Salzburg - and before I went to my interview appointment, I took a good look at Getreidegasse - for the first time in years, actually...

self-explaining

... with its weird mélange of traditional guild emblems (which this little street is famous for) and the versions that global brands created for their presence in this very chic part of Austria...

Zara has little dancing figurines

... from reduced Nordic design (not so appealing: H&M) via luxury (comme il faut: Louis Vuitton) to surprising pageantry (McDonalds...?)...

Salamander sells its shoes

no great ado from the Swedes...

you might not recongise it: it's a shoe, and it's Bally

Mc Donalds does make its point VERY clear - new noblesse oblige...