MICK & FREJA

... were it not for the negligible age difference of 44 years, Sir Rolling Stone Mick Jagger and Danish model Freja Beha Erichsen could indeed be siblings. Or even, the same person? Androgynous beauty, which seem to work both ways...

SOON IT'S SAMSTAG

... the dear boys from superated will soon launch their shop venture called SAMSTAG and increase the fashionability of Vienna's 5th district.


As I live very close to the shop venue, I stopped on my way home and took some images of the façade as it looks today.


I guess that after the official shop opening the windows will become transparent, but the shopfront is hopefully going to stay the way it is now.


Samstag (German for Saturday) will only open on Fridays ans Saturdays, and the 8th of May will be the first day in service - WEEKEND SHOPPING HERE WE COME!


I'm much looking forward to rummaging through the collections on sale, among them superated, House of the Very Island's, Baiba Ripa and Hartmann Nordenholz.


Thank God it's Saturday...

THIS IS the real PET FANCLUB

inside / inside

... almost without words - another kind of Pet Club, closely realated to the topic of "collectibles" AND therefore making me think of Susan Sontag's Volcano Lover (loosely) and Walter Benjamin's Passagenwerk...

outside / inside

AMANDA & JEANNINE (or: fresh from the surgeon)

... fantastic plastic surgery!

The unlikely couple of AMANDA LEPORE (familiarise yourself with her biography if you haven't already) and JEANNINE SCHILLER (an Austrian B or C list celebrity) has been on my mind for quite a while. I there proudly present this week's DOPPELGANGERS without further ado - still delighted about this "my face just burst open"-scenario ...

SCHONEN in TOKYO

... the infamous Austrian in Tokyo, Edwina Hörl, sent me this invitation to the presentation of her fall 2010 collection in Tokyo.

At so+ba, 5-29-20 Kyodo, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156-0051 - Friday evening there'll be some kind of live event.

Were it not for the ashcloud...

LADY GAGA & LORD WARHOL

... so after ParisVienne found out about the exciting afterlife of Elvis, who obviously survives in, through or instead of Priscilla, this week's episode of the popular DOPPELGANGERS section holds another surprise for you: apparently, ANDY WARHOL and LADY GAGA are the same person. 15-minute-stardom indeed ...

FIVE O - FIFTIES!

... yesterday I attendted the opening of the exhibition FEMININE FIFTIES at wagner:werk in the beautiful Postsparkasse building on Georg-Coch-Platz in Vienna's first district, one of the city's architectural landmarks designed by Otto Wagner himself.

from Africa to poodle-frenzy: 1950s reading

As a big fan of 1950 collectibles, I was quite looking forward to the exhibition. Even though, at the end of the day, I didn't get to see anything I wouldn't when browsing through various thrift and second-hand stores.

cherries and skincare

Anyhow, the opening was also animated by the appearance of special guest star Conny Froboess, a true 1950s relict, so to say.

a petite woman: Conny Froboess had come from Munich, and remained unheard

The only problem: sound technicians and microphones weren't exactly best friends, so most of the speakers' voices lost themselves somewhere in the spheres of the building.

feminine fifties fashion... so Lena Hoschek, in a way!

Unfortunately, by the time Mrs Froboess started talking, the greater part of the audience had taken to beverage and "cheese-hedgehog" hunting. A pity, really, and such a rude overall behaviour that I do actually think I had rarerly witnessed anything as impolite and disrespectful before - in an exhibition opening context, goes without saying...

a boudoiresque pick'n'mix - a fifties arrangement for Alexis Carrington's precursor

RIP MALCOLM

... if there's one designer who really knows how to react quickly, it's Luxembourg's Anne-Marie Herckes, a dear friend of mine whose work I much appreciate, and as the true necrologist of fashion, she immediately creates miniature-couture hommages to deceased celebrities. Such was the case with Michael, such is the case with Malcolm...

FRENCH CHIC ROCK CHICK IN NYC

... how lovely: French fashion darling Isabel Marant, who I recently met backstage before her f/w 10 fashion show in Paris (while she was getting her nails done...), now opens her first flagship store in New York City.


The very intimate and personal Marant-teasers that were put in the windows of her shop-to-be all feature a charming and totally unpretentious character called Mr. Hatman ...


... who seems to be particularly dear to Isabel. Nice outside views of Isbel's NYC shop (469 Broome, Green Corner, Soho) as it was about to take shape can be found on The Shophound, btw.


You know who Mr. Hatman reminds me of? Roger Hargreaves' children's books, you know, Little Miss Sunshine and her bunch of friends. Maybe that's one of the sources of Isabel's creative spirit?

two looks from Isabel's spring 2010 collection, totally not Little Miss Sunshine, via style.com

Hard to believe though, given the Rock chick with a French chic twist allure she usually evokes in her collections - but you know, from input to output, a lot of things can happen...

ARRENDITI, DIABOLIK!

... did I ever mention that apart from writing about fashion, I pursue the fascinating (though somewhat lengthy...) project of a doctorate in comparative literature...


... where I compare crime novels from various Romance language countries under a specific aspect (it would lead too far to get into details here, I'll just let you know when the thesis is published...), so I am particularly grateful for the Diabolik collection that Sisley brought out recently.

Diabolik is an Italian "fumetto" of course, launched in 1962 by Angela and Luciana Giussani - and the publication of Diabolik libretti continues today, as far as I know. Your perfect beach reading, by the way...

ELVIS & PRISCILLA

... when I was looking around and trying to figure out who to use for my next doppelganger posting, it did surprise me that the first person I thought of when I came across this image of Priscilla Presley was, well, her late husband Elvis. I mean, what a tragedy - this has got nothing to do with the people who try to turn themselves into cats or Barbies using plastic surgery, this woman obviously interiorized her grief and sorrow and is now, in a somewhat creepy manner, gradually turning into the man she used to love.

Alternative theory: is Priscilla of 2010 in fact Elvis? Are all the rumours about him being alive still actually and incredibly true?

But whatever happened to Baby Priscilla, then...

TRAPP CRAP

... I think, and this concerns fashion just as well as literature, theatre or whatever cultural/creative domain, it is always very interesting to see how people represent a certain country if their target audience aren't people from that country, but people abroad.


In an interesting article published last week, Michaela doesn't only talk about the presence of three Austrian fashion labels (superated - mangelware - Michèl Meyer) in the Berlin branch of Galeries Lafayette, she also tells her readers how this collaboration came about.


As a matter of fact, the initial trigger was a book entitled "Neues Österreich" (New Austria - publication date: May 1, 2010) commissioned by the Austrian National Tourist Office, which contains a fashion spread shot by London-based photographer Nico Ferrando.


Well, what you see there is not necessarily what you get in Austria (the contrary of NEW?), but never mind.

the original "Sound of Music" atmosphere incl. Julie Andrews, via guardian.co.uk

Once again, THE SOUND OF MUSIC must have been on everybody's mind when drafting the photoshoot concept, because these images are really all about Alps - meadows - happiness ever after. Trapp family, here we go!


That doesn't mean they're not nice to look at - it's just that really, one might wonder whether it actually makes sense to insist on this kind of imagery in 2010...


all images taken from this book:

ANDRE COURREGES x KERAMAG

... André Courrèges is of course one of the HUGE names in 20th century French fashion, his futuristic looks are absolutely something to remember, and in the 60s and 70s he played in the Balenciaga (whose pupil he was) and Cardin-league.


Just like Cardin, Courrèges was not averse to licensing deals, and his most remarkable design collaboration took place when he was asked by bathroom-outfitter Keramag to contribute bathtubs, toilets, basins and urinals to their bathroom collection.


Surprisingly, the Courrèges-series does look very familiar. His designs were very popular, and production stopped only recently after renegotiations over the conditions of the licensing deal failed.


So even if you don't own a Courrèges model, you may actually already have sat on one ...

JENNIFER CARDINI IN VIENNA

... talking about the good old Paris days - Jennifer Cardini, who I loved when she was resident DJ in the unmissable (alas defunct) Parisian club PULP with her soirée Lust on Thursdays will be in Vienna on Friday April 9 @ Hertzbeat/Planetarium. So ParisVienne...

DANUBIANA

... when we went to Bratislava last weekend, we were lucky enough to be shown around by lovely theatre writer and critic Anna Grusková. That was amazing, and Anna, who is a real darling, gave us precious insight into the lovely city that is Bratislava.


When we took our afternoon coffee outside a newly opened shopping mall with adjacent cafés overlooking the river Danube, Anna told us about the Danubiana Meulensteen Art Foundation nearby.


The museum building is actually like a ship standing on a peninsula surrounded by the river delta, I didn't have the chance to go there (car, hello!?) - but I find the images amazing and "appetizing".


A little surprisingly maybe, the Dutch art collector Gerard H. Meulensteen picked Bratislava as the place where he would initiate an art foundation and exhibit his collection, which includes works by Sam Francis, Karel Appel, Wallace Thing, Pierre Alechinsky, Christo, and Magdalena Abakanowicz.

How good to know, that ParisVienne is so close to such an interesting art institution. And come to think of it, taking a closer look at the Slovak fashion scene may also be a good idea, one day or the other...

JEWELLERY MAKEOVER

... when I did research for the slightly unconventional topic "jewellery made from recycled food-related objects" (think ring pulls, crown caps, gold foil, portioned coffee capsules), I came across the work of Austrian designer Carin Fürst.


I must say, within the range of recycling-jewellery, where the boundary between beauty and blatant DIY style is all too narrow, Carin's work is quite outstanding.

Even though I'm not a grat fan of Nespresso's capsule concept, what Carin makes of the capsules is simply amazing.


When I talked to her, Carin pointed out that sometimes her customers will not immediately recognize the material she used to make a certain piece of jewellery: the ensuing guessing and pondering over possible raw materials is definitely the extremest case of successful recycling-based design.


Also nice: the gold beads for which she uses Ferrero Rocher foil, preferably. And the colourful long beads made from Zotter chocolate wrapping paper. All in all, absolutely a good find. Check out her website for points of sale...

A LEGOLAND OF FASHION & SEX

... somehow I managed to miss this when I was in Paris for the womenswear collections in March. However: the Vendôme Luxury fair brought together a bunch of designers for this year's special exhibition ...


... BRICKworld was on show from March 6 - 9 at the venue of Vendôme Luxury. Fantastic, according to the event-blog, a couple of really good and/or entertaining objects were on show ...

above, three times Castelbajac (images via vendomeluxurylive.blogspot.com)

... such as the accessory-line designed by Jean-Charles de Castelbajac (definitely no stranger to toys of any kind) ...

above, Christopher Ross via vendomeluxurylive.blogspot.com

... or by Christopher Ross, who did an amazing snake-belt ...

above, Julie Pasquet via vendomeluxurylive.blogspot.com

... and I also like Julie Pasquet's piece of jewellery as shown above.

And you know what, the unlikely (is it? or isn't it?) link between fashion and Lego actually reminds me of an outstandingly hilarious quote from Absolutely Fabulous (the one Britcom you must know) where Patsy Stone talks about her backstage experiences at a Rolling Stones concert in the Swinging Sixties:

"It was like a Legoland of sex after those concerts, darling. Everybody was connected to someone else by something."

So fabulously fashionable...