EDWINA HÖRL STOCKSALE

... Edwina Hörl is in town, exceptionally. Save the date, and save the airfare for a Vienna - Tokyo round trip ...

FEMME MAISON by George and Franziska

... wonderful visuals, I say. While I am currently unable to move my neck (yoga-induced inflexibility, initially triggered by severe email-shock suffered last Tuesday), I am being consoled by marvellous images that hit my mailbox.


George Bezhanishvili and Franziska Fürpass called on their partners in crime Andreas Waldschütz (photos) and Adia Trischler (modelling) to produce this sneak preview of their Louise Bourgeois-inspired collection "Femme Maison", which they will take to Paris this autumn and which already catapulted them into the final of Bilbao's fashion festival.


Showcased here are a persian imitate "Black Fur Coat" with ruffled backside and a gray linen dress. The striking structured surface of the dress reflects the approach of this very promising design duo for the coat that made it to Bilbao.


Wonderful and - I'm sure that there is much more where this came from...

FASHION FLASHMOB

... fashion + flashmob = fash:mob, darlings. At least that's style-arithmetics according to Mr. Mario Soldo, a true Viennese fashion legend.


Yesterday, a fashion-flashmob organised by Mario took place in Vienna's 5th district, showcasing fashion by House of Boing. Quite something.


And there was almost a whiff of Chanel in the air, if you think of the latest resort collection presentation in St. Tropez. Formidable...

BLESS YOU

... went to Graz and met the designers/artists behind BLESS, Désirée Heiss and Ines Kaag.


Interesting (albeit somewhat peculiar) experience. Read the interview here.


Some installation views for you (all courtesy of Joanneum Graz/© Nicolas Lackner) - "Retroperspective Home" remains open until late August ...

PLASTIC PARADISE

... an article I wrote about Brazilian plastic shoe label Melissa just came out - and I must say that, as we witness the launch of Melissa's first men's shoe 30 years after the brand was founded, it's quite amazing to see how long a way the creative team came to make it from ARANHA (1979, below) to M:Zero (2010, above - as if you hadn't guessed).



One of Melissa's most striking features, of course - the "cheirinho" or special tutti frutti mix fragrance blended into the Melflex material. I hope the men's models will also come complete with that ...

VANITY FAIR

... no, this is neither about Thackeray's novel nor any kind of print magazine, I'm still referring to the vanity motif in art - more importantly so: THE SKULL.

For this contribution to the weekly DOPPELGANGERS section I chose to, uhm, "juxtapose" three skulls - two of them by artists, one a design object created for the purpose of shop decoration. Amazing to see how boundaries between art, design, fashion and interior decoration become blurred where it comes to using skulls and bones...

TIME TO GET DRESSED

graph via Lynn & Horst

... well, after the ugly underwear experience organised by Lynn & Horst, it's time to open that bottle of champagne and celebrate the close-to-victory feeling. Thanks to everyone who supported me - and congratulations to the fab underwear duo JuliaAndBen ...

CHRISTINA'S INVISIBLE CLOTHES

... just found this image announcing Christina Berger's latest, uhm, collection (?) in my mailbox. Sounds like fun, looks like the all too well-known fashion trash bombastic mix.

Which I do like, kind of, don't get me wrong there. But indeed, I can't help asking myself (and you, on the occasion): what is this about? Is there more to come, is it only a teaser, did Christina read Andersen, or watch Altman movies lately? Do we question the ethics, and morals, or functionings of fashion? What? ...

SCANDALOUS YOUNG WRITERS

... since there has been so much talk (far too much talk, for my taste) recently about young authors of contemporary fiction and their perception of "intertextuality" ...

... a discussion that involved a surprising number of fashion bloggers, as it were - the intellectual élite, of course, and people who more often than not sided with the "underdog" ...



... the underdog being the unjustly reprimanded 18-year-old, who published a first novel of dubitable literary quality ...

... I had to think of the talented young author that was Ronald M. Schernikau in his day, a very particular writer and individual. Born in 1960, he died at age 31 of AIDS, and succeeded in crossing over from Western Germany into the GDR in 1989, just before the wall came down - the reunification of Germany also meant the downbreak of a personal utopia, in his case.

Schernikau published his first book KLEINSTADTNOVELLE in 1980, then aged 20 - and thus created a "valid" contribution to German-language literature of the 20th century. Remains to be seen if we'll be able to say the same thing about other books in, say, 10, 15, 20 years time. Or even - six months ...

FLOWERS FOR KIM IL SUNG

Ri Tong Gon, In early morning, 2010
© Korean Art Gallery, Pyongyang

... amazing stuff, that exhibition: the show "FLOWERS FOR KIM IL SUNG" just opened in Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts and showcases contemporary art, architecture and poster production from North Korea/DPRK.

Open through September 5, 2010.

edit: read more about North Korea on ParisVienne.com - here about fantastic lighting in underground stations of Pyongyang, here about North Korean cosmetics and here about traditional fashion

BALLETS RUSSES in LONDON

... I'm already looking forward to the exhibition "DIAGHILEV AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE BALLETS RUSSES, 1909 - 1929", which will open at the Victoria & Albert in London this autumn.

a costume by Léon Bakst for Firebird, 1910

We all know how influentiall the ballet company was not only in the context of dance itself but also for fashion (think Poiret via Léon Bakst) and indeed, beauty and makeup.

Anna Pavlova

Dancers the likes of Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky are still intricately linked with the Ballets Russes, and they were without a doubt internationally renowned celebrities of their day.

Vaslav Nijinsky in L'après-midi d'un faune, by Léon Bakst

Now, the curatorial team at the Victoria & Albert museum are still conducting research and collecting exhibits and would be happy for anyone owning Ballets Russes-related pieces that they would like to contribute to the exhibition to contact them by writing to j.pritchard@vam.ac.uk ...

Vaslav Nijinsky

ANNE VALERIE & KATHY

... when the interview for which I had met lovely Anne Valérie Hash came out, my boyfriend told me that he found her a striking resemblance with American actress Kathy Najimy (think Sister Act and Hocus Pocus).

Well, after checking available image material - I must say, I can only agree. It's a clear-cut case for my ever so popular DOPPELGANGERS section (and down to the last accessory, apparently...) - or what do you think? ...

MUTANDE ROSSE

... dear ParisVienne readers, little numerous though you are, I'm sure you'd just LOVE VOTING FOR PARISVIENNE in the Ugly Underwear Contest on Lynn & Horst's fantastic web home.


After all, even the man in a suit already prepared the Austrian public for the overall importance of this competition. The heat is on, is all I can say. So - you'll help me, won't you ...

SALTY SAKURA

... instead of licking away at a cone filled with icecream, I rather feel like sipping a cup of tea these days. So I prepared myself this Japanese delight I'd bought in Tokyo last year - salted cherry blossoms.

misty misty cherry...

Wonderful, a truly exciting sensation. And so beautiful to look at. Very "Japanese aesthetics" - although this seems to be so wide a field that I dare not get into it.

Sa-Ku-Ra, from tree to salt...

And no, this is not turning into a design-food-kitchen-blog...

TUTTI FRUTTI FANTASIES

... one thing to look forward to in this desperate, gray and forlorn town (okay, I'm exaggerating): when spring arrives, the age-old icecream institution Tichy reopens after the traditional winter closure.


Even though I'm far from being a fan of icecream (don't really like it, actually), I like seeing the beautiful Tichy adverts all over Vienna - as they are usually good examples of ingenuous graphic design.


This year, it's all about 1950s and an almost Carmen Miranda-like "Tutti Frutti" feeling. Jolly nice, I say.

And: at least we've got these billboards, now that spring reveals itself to be so reluctant a companion...

NUITS PARISIENNES

... BACK AGAIN! Actually, as soon as I'd put down the sentence "I'll take a little break on this blog", my head started filling with new ideas and little thoughts and ...

photo by Hervé Hubert

So, back with a bang I'd say, and since I recently had the privilege of meeting my favourite DJ from Paris (or Cologne), Jennifer Cardini, when she came to Vienna (the article in German is published here) - I thought I might just as well transcribe some of the quotes I used for my article "en langue originale".

It's Jennifer en français and "brush up on your French" (or use Babelfish).

Jennifer was born in Monaco and moved to Paris in the mid-90s, where she became resident DJ in the fabulous Rex Club and had her regular soirée in the wonderful, wonderful (alas defunct) Pulp club.

About Monaco - and good reasons for leaving... "C'est vieux et conservateur, c'est vraiment étouffant. Par contre, il n'y a pas que des gens riches, c'est un malentendu qu'on entend souvent. T'as des gens très riches, évidemment, mais après t'as aussi la population monégasse qui vit là et qui gagne le SMIC. (...) Pour moi, ce n'était pas possible de rester là parce que je ne me sentais jamais à l'aise là-bas. Et puis, par rapport a mon homosexualité, c'était également très difficile."

photo by Marco dos Santos

About the compulsory Paris stopover: "Nul n'est prophète dans son propre pays, comme on dit. Alors quand j'étais là-bas, dans le Midi, cela n'intéressait personne de me faire jouer. Il a fallu que je parte à Paris pour qu'on me (re)découvre ensuite. C'est très français ça, le fait de toujours se voir dans l'obligation de passer par Paris, je trouve ça assez idiot."

About possible reasons for the success of Le Pulp: "La scène parisienne, à l'époque, était très house, et le Rex était très techno, et c'est ce qui a fait le succès du Pulp parce qu'il n'y avait rien qui proposait quelque chose entre les deux. Le Pulp a proposé une alternative, ce que t'entends encore maintenant, ce que Chloé ou Ivan Smaegghe ou moi, on mixe. Electroclash, par contre, c'était plutôt le coin de Miss Kittin and the Hacker. Nous, on est influencés par le rock, par la new wave, par tout ce qu'on écoutait quand on était gamins. C'est plus une musique en suspens, avec une ambiance dark, avec une profondeur, un truc un peu crade. C'était un peu le contre-pied à la house."

About reasons to leave Paris: "Paris était devenu trop stressant pour moi, c'est la folie, je trouve. Les gens sont agressifs, le rythme, c'est du suicide, les loyers et tout le reste - il faut qu'ils arrêtent avec ça. Après, je suis française, j'aime Paris et tout, mais le temps de faire mon album je suis mieux à Cologne."

About energy that emanates from people dancing: "Bien évidemment j'ai besoin de voir les gens danser devant moi, c'est une question d'énergie."

About being a DJ, not a DJane: "Je ne suis pas DJette, je ne suis pas DJane, je suis DJ, voilà tout. Cela m'énerve un peu quand on insiste trop là-dessus. A la fin j'espère que les gens m'aiment et me comprennent à cause de la musique que je mixe."

Bref, Jennifer - j'adore ...

INTERVALLE

... I'll take a short time-out on ParisVienne and will be back at some point, when more time on hand and new ideas in head ...

UPCYCLING WITH AMNESTY

... a friend of mine works for the Austrian branch of Amnesty International, which is of course the well-known international NGO with the delcared aim to "prevent and end" all human rights-abuse - she asked me to advertise this project she was in charge of. Alright then...

As the NGO celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2010, the Austrian AI-people teamed up with upcycling specialist Garbage to create these bags - some kind of birthday present that you buy from AI to celebrate with them. They may not be the most stylish fashion accessories you'll ever come across. But this is definitely as close to "political fashion" as you can get. Do consider buying. Btw: it's mother's day next Sunday, so maybe that's a good occasion to place some "good conscience" in your mum's closet...