Sonja Bischur in Paris - and online

... and, of course, also very strongly recommended: Sonja Bischur, who does actually now also have a website - hear, hear! ...

Eva Blut in Paris

... another Paris recommendation, far from the fashion shows ...

JR beautified in VIENNA

photo © Michele Pauty

... now, that's quite the kind of info that we needed for a bright start into this gloomy autumn day - guess what? LARRY HAGMAN was in Vienna, yes, Mr. JR Ewing himself. And, what's more, he visited the plastic surgeon Dr. Knabl to find out about possibilities of improving his looks. One of his buddies had had his eyelids done by Dr. Knabl, so that got Larry thinking. No surgery upon first consultation, is the surgeon's golden rule. But rumour has it, Larry will be back. Now, isn't that fan-tas-tic ??? ...

Hartmann Nordenholz in Paris

... strongly recommended, just like every season ...

FASHION AND TELEVISION : why not ?

... when I recently mentioned Jeanne Beker, I remembered just *how much* I adored the show she produces and hosts for Canada's CTV - "Fashion TV" (*not* to be mistaken for the tv channel of the same name though). What a surprise when I checked out the website: FTV just celebrated its 25th anniversary.



Well, congratulations. And: the special episode looking back on a quarter of a century in fashion can be watched online - here. Definitely a good one.

Really, back in the late eighties and early nineties, when I first realized that I had a special interest in fashion, and long before the Internet turned into a household good (no internet, nor computers - Commodore and Atari R.I.P.) - these moving images (and the ones that could be seen on Style on CNN) really made my week.

Naturally, television had to give up some of its influence and grandeur because of the tremendous impact of the Internet. Yet, it still is a very influential media, with lots of money behind (the monetary effect being a bit problematic for the Internet, as we all know all too well...).

I think that to make people more responsive to fashion, it has to take place on TV also. And not just in some kind of flimsy society format.

On Austrian television, traditionally, in that respect, there is nought. And that reflects itself in the inexistent fashion sensibility, on a larger scale. And that's a shame, in my humble opinion.

Anyone out there who fancies a change? ...

FASHION THEORY

Oriole Cullen and Stephen Jones, courtesy of V&A images

... for an interview that was published recently I met the Victoria & Albert's fashion curator Oriole Cullen, who is a real darling, and very smart on top of that. She told me about the challenges in curating fashion, and staging it properly - and about the expectations of museum goers.

Concerning fashion archives and fashion theory, and the relationship between fashion historians/theoreticians and journalists, she stated the following:

"I think that journalists are forming public taste in a way,
and people look to them because they have got the input for doing that.
In a way, I feel that this isn't our mission since we take one step back to observe and record for the future, to try and make a record of a particular moment in fashion and design. Which is easier said than done, by the way."

Well, absolutely - and since someone recently mentioned that they thought fashion theory was dead (a very Roland Barthes thing to say...) or about to die or whatever - I think if that were the case, fashion would be dead altogether. One should never underestimate the long-term impact and influence of historiography and theory, that's my firm conviction ...

PAPIER MATIFIANT DE CHANEL

... do be prepared for the moment where, say, Jeanne Beker approaches you and asks you to empty your handbag under the scrutinizing eye of her camera man - Chanel Papier Matifiant is a must-have, I should think. And it will of course be rather practical because of the shiny lights that usually emanate from Jeanne ...

EDIT: I was - and very rightly so - just made aware of the fact that by posting this I may actually have joined the "milky league" ...

Zazo & Brull

photo: Jürgen Hammerschmid/MQ Vienna Fashion Week

... just looked at the runway images of the s/s 11 collection by Zazo & Brull from Barcelona. Decent work for sure...

... and yet - is it just me or is this a tiny little bit the Alexander McQueen meets Gareth Pugh meets Martin Margiela meets Louise Gray kind of aesthetics? And then again, maybe that's just something that's in the air, in the fashion world, the wide and wild one ...

+++++

not the most representative way of photographing Plus Size Fashion ...

... an article I wrote about the interesting (and largely neglected) topic of Plus Size Fashion came out yesterday. For everyone familiar with the German tongue, it's online on the newspaper's website.

I just wanted to add - the fact that it took Roberto Cavalli's press office in Milan two days until they were able to even confirm the fact that the Cavalli plus size collection Class White Label exists is, well, absurd.

And the fact that the Cologne-based shop owners who photographed the Cavalli plus size clothes for their own PR purposes and who distribute the collection exclusively in Germany (in the whole world? I found only German-language websites referring to Class White Label...), so the fact that they photographed the clothes on hangers and stands - not even plus size mannequins - is also, well bizarre. To say the least. Shying away from what, we are, here? ...

NEW SHOPS with OLD MONEY

... at least with one of these shops the "old money" motto may well be appropriate - number one: FÜRN is a new concept store run by Tina Fürnkranz and will reveal its interior to a select crowd on October 6. It will be open to everyone starting on October 7 in Singerstraße 11, 1010 Vienna.

The other new shop is a "rent your point of sale" and "shop in shop" concept. Everyone can rent their own sales surface for a month, or two, or however long they want to, the whole thing is called Mein Design and located in Kettenbrückengasse 6. It was opened yesterday.

Shopping autumn, winter, spring and summer - here we come ...

24/7

... true, oh so true - the wonderful designers behind superated, Peter and Christian (who I regularly bump into on my way home from my yoga classes ... charming pavement stoppers, if I may say so), were addressed as "Vienna insiders" by Insiderei.com and answered some standardized interview questions.


I can only agree where it comes to their statement concerning the total absence of 24 h shops and remaining infrastructure:

"Shops that are open 24 hours a day or at least until midnight. That's why we always go to the famous Wurstelstand on Hoher Markt 4 - sausages sure are tasty, but they're far from being healthy, and you don't always want to eat wurstel."

ParisVienne is totally d'accord - and would like to add that the very handy Turkish bakery Gül on Wienzeile is virtually always open - and it's right around the corner from the superated / Samstag premises...

Tip: the superated fashion show is part of MQ Vienna Fashion Week and starts at 9 pm.

CELEBRITY star GUESTS

photo (detail): Jürgen Hammerschmid, courtesy of MQ Vienna Fashion Week

... I wear my sunglasses at night - doo dee doo ... Last evening, "colourful" gala opening of MQ Vienna Fashion Week, not really "star studded", if I may say so - and certain (self proclaimed?) celebrities (see: sunglasses in red) really turn this into Oktoberfest. Luckily, there's more to this event than just the ever so VIP opening event ...

But then again, we all know that Vienna isn't Paris isn't Milan isn't New York isn't London - and not even Berlin ...

THE SENSE OF STYLE

... no, this isn't about Mrs. Elsa Klensch (a person entirely, and successfully, devoted to finding out all about the sense of style, as we all know), this is about a wonderful competition which I would like to participate in, or watch, or judge, or whatever... I'd love to BUT I'll be in the United States when it takes place.

all images courtesy of Caritas/Carla

So this is for all the Vienna peple out there who like dressing up and are into an entertaining vintage fashion look - Carla, aka the Caritas Vienna fashion store, invites future Styling Kings and Queens to enlist for a competition that will take place on October 21.

The principle is simple: you choose what you like, you wear what you choose, and the audience will vote for you (or it won't). Wonderful - fashion should be about fun, sometimes, and not only during carnival...

1 AUSTRIAN, 1 GERMAN, 3 SWISS

... that's the mix - when Iris Strubegger is photographed by maître Karl for mail delivery retailer 3Suisses. Did attract a lot of attention, of course. Do we like it? Well, you know - press people are always happy when they've got something to write about ...

ANNA? ANNA WINTOUR??

"Fashion - it's about the future, always." (Anna W.)

... goodness gracious me - what a difference a new hair colour and a pair of sunglasses can make, don't you think? Chain smoker? Insomnia?


I'll disclose the source of these screenshots next Tuesday, so check back (you do, anyway, don't you?) ...

MMM GLOBAL SHOPPING

... just in (in my mailbox, and that of seven trezillion other people I guess) - Maison Martin Margiela goes even more online than it is already, the imminent opening of an e-shop will make it possible for internet-equipped mountain people to acquire their necessary bucket full of ultimate design items.


Open 24/7 from October 1st on www.martinmargiela.com - that's the way we like it ...

LORIS VUNTON, WELCOME TO VIENNA!

... I mean, *WHO* came up with the idea??? The Sunday edition of Austria's most horrid daily newspaper includes an interesting rendering of one of the first district's shopping streets - complete with a "Loris Vunton" store.

For some people it seems to be hard to differentiate between "ridiculous" and "funny" - but with said newspaper, that doesn't come as a surprise, I guess ...

BLING BLING LIGHTING

... what's that, you're gonna ask me. Well, I can proudly tell you - this is not a flying saucer, it's another of those wonderful design-fashion-crossover (aka, what we call them in Vienna - "intercreative") collaboration thingies.

Namely, it's a LAMP (yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's what it is) designed by Vienna's very own couture wunderkind (or so) Thomas Kirchgrabner for Nin Prantner.

The whole thing took shape as part of the latest Wien Products collaboration series. Let's consider it the ultimate bling bling lighting ...

BLINK of an EYE

... in English, of course, the pun doesn't do the trick, but I just love the slogan "Brillen statt Marillen". The Vienna-based optician Augenblicke (the website is, uhm, *very original*) opens a new branch on Naschmarkt, which is one of the town's best-known bobo/touristy spots.

The opening takes place tomorrow (Friday September 17, starts at 4 pm - Linke Wienzeile 4, 1060) - good views guaranteed ...

VINTAGE JEWELS, Swiss provenance

the range and play of colours is very patriotic, in Swiss as well as Austrian terms ...

... on the occasion of the official celebrity gala VIP opening of Bally's second most largest store in the (not sooooo big) German-speaking world on Vienna's Graben, which takes place tomorrow evening (but I believe it's all very exclusive and for invited guests only and fingerfood hello...), please find enclosed an image of really, really beautiful "Santa Claus"-style vintage slippers which I found in one of Vienna's thrift stores and gave to a dear friend of mine, who, I must admit, doesn't honour them quite as much as they'd deserve. But that's another story, maybe, and one that needn't be told here ...

oh, it's a Bally for real...

TERRAplastic ARMY

... it's a small world, ours, really. As for the art world, with contemporary art being a truly global AND fashionable phenomenon of course, it's an even smaller one, apparently. So, when we strolled through 798 Art District in Beijing this summer, we bumped into AnniArt gallery, which beckoned out to us with a funny looking plastic crocodile on the façade and a mock car made of mock bricks that had been put outside.



Both objects (correct me if I'm wrong) were part of the exhibition "Terraplastic Army" by (Lower) Austrian artist Rainer Prohaska, who had participated in several residency programmes in Beijing.



Once inside, the exhibition continued in just as gleeful a manner, and I also found out that AnniArt was the venue where the cross-cultural exhibition mifan had taken place in 2009 - a group show with works by Lukas Birk, Karel Dudesek, G.R.A.M., Nikolaus Gansterer, Gerald Nestler + Sylvia Eckermann, Michael Hoepfner, Ulrike Johannsen, Ronald Kodritsch, Jasmin Ladenhaufen, Matthias Meinharter + Nikolaus Gansterer, Ralo Mayer, Matthias Meinharter, Rainer Prohaska, Kamen Stojanov, Kerstin Von Gabei. Amazing, in a way. And the world really is a small place, artsy or not, global or not ...

FRISS is fresh.

... a couple of weeks ago I spent a (transit) day in the adorable city that is Budapest before taking the plane to Beijing.

Of course, usually, when you spend some hours in a place you like but only vaguely know, little is the chance of stumbling into a truly interesting event: how lucky were we, then, to attend the opening of the FRISS 2010 exhibition at the Kogart art centre on Andrássy út.

Paper Dolls, by Klara Petra Szabó, 2010

Friss, in Hungarian, means "fresh" - so this was a show with works by young graduates from art university. The show was a colourful pick and mix of various approaches, and I did like quite some of the artworks on display. For example, Klara Petra Szabó's Paper Dolls. You can find about Klara Petra on her blog - and on her virtual exhibition space on the website of Saatchi gallery.

Dóra Szenteleki's rather apocalyptic installation "Zéta" (2010)

Unfortunately, the Kogart website isn't as informative as one might like it to be, but click through the Friss blog to familiarise yourself with some more representatives of Hungary's young art scene ...

Oh la la, ODO!

... this will have to go without too many words. Celebrity culture? Anyone who ever attended a fashion event in Vienna will know *why* I found this image in the German society magazine "Bunte" particularly striking. Star stylists, here we go.

To think that a publication of the kind possibly puts certain persons in the limelight... Anyhow, I say thank you to assiduous gossip mag-reader Adrian for bringing this to my attention ...

SCARE me that CROW

Like a joke, really - Stéphane Rolland (left) and Maison Martin Margiela contributed to the scarecrow installation in Palais Royal in July upon invitation by Masters of Linen.

... delay, delay, what a delay: when I was in Paris for the fall 2010 Haute Couture shows, *this* (lack of words?) was going on in Palais Royal. Scarecrows, created (or decorated) by fashion designers (eg. Maison Martin Margiela, Mr. "little black dress" Didier Ludot, Stéphane Rolland, Roberto Cavalli).

I think the godmother of all bloggers, you know, the lady with the black veil (how embarrassing: I was seated next to her at Gaultier couture. At a certain point, everyone got up to watch Dita vT perform - and the lady in black actually sat down before me. Stupid little me forgot to check whether the veil had come to lie on my chair when I sat down again. Sure enough, it had. I'll leave it to your imagination just *what* happened when the veiled lady tried to get up *before* I did...), already blogged about this back then.

What do you consider to be more scary: Didier Ludot's scarecrow dress, or Roberto Cavalli's ugly-as-ever, hideous little thingy?

Still, I would like to proudly share with you my images, too. Asking myself, actually, whether creating fashion for scarecrows (the idea alone seems like a joke to me! aren't there better ways of stageing the innovative nature of linen and hemp? no?? isn't that an absurd mise en scène of the eco/alternative fashion cliché??? scarecrows????) isn't what some representatives of the floppy and shabby look do anyhow ...

DE BIENNALES, JAMAIS ASSEZ !

... aaaaand another biennial art event coming our way: the infamous Belleville quarter in Paris hosts its very own art biennial between September 10 and October 23.

works by Jochen Lempert are on show at Café au Lit (from the Bird series, 1997 - 1999)

Since a great many independent art galleries (independent not in the sense of those who moved from the Marais to rue Louise Weiss and back again...) and institutions are based in Belleville, or let's say the 19th as well as the 20th arrondissement, the overall programme is indeed quite comprehensive. Please note that most openings will take place on September 9.

Swetlana Heger, Future Works, 2005 (court. galerie Triple V, Paris)

What initially caught my eye was the invitation sent over by Café au Lit, where photo works by Jochen Lempert will be on show. On the biennial's website I found out that Swetlana Heger, who I interviewed ages ago, will also participate. And the work by Australian art combo A Constructed World does definitely make me curious, too.

ACW, Adam & Eve, 2010 (court. A Constructed World)

Since the Belleville biennial will continue in October and during fashion week time, this is also something that fashionistas (how I hate the word, why can't I stop using it???) may well write down in their respective agendas ...

RIVE GAUCHE, RIVE DROITE

... I do actually quite like the visual, and possibly also the concept: "Rive Gauche, Rive Droite" is a series of art exhibitions that span the left and the right bank of river Seine in Paris.

The series of events takes place between Sept 9 and 25, involving 27 contemporary artists in 6 locations. The whole thing is curated by Marc Jancou.

Interesting: the exhibition venue for the opening that takes place on Sept 9 is Azzedine Alaïa's boutique. Art and fashion lovers unite (or something of the kind?) ...

DUE SPETTACOLI

... spettacoli spettacolari, I'd like to add. The wonderful Italian director Alessandro Sciarroni is currently touring Italy throughout what he calls an ESTATE DEGLI SPETTACOLI, and I'd like to recommend two upcoming events ...


... on the one hand, Lucky Star, which is on tonight as part of the festival Ars Amando in Amandola - so this is kind of a last-minute announcement (if you're in, or near Amandola, the piece will be performed on piazza Umberto I on the basketball field, a production by the Teatro Stabile delle Marche ...


... and on the other hand, Sandro's piece Cowboys will be performed in Bologna on September 8, as part of the Danza Urbana festival. The performance starts at 6.30 pm and 7.30 pm in Bologna's MAMbo museum. Attention: entrance is subject to phone reservation by calling +39 034 87 29 87 74 on weekdays between 10 am and 6 pm.

Highly recommended this is, and one of these days I will make it to one of Sandro's wonderful scenic stagings, promised ...

A GALACTIC RENTRÉE with PETER PILOTTO

... now, my dear ParisVienne friends, what do we make of the inflationary "designer collaborates with huge brand" kind of projects? By now, we've got so used to them that, imho, nothing much, really. Or do such collaborations still have the potential to get us into a craze?

I mean, I think it is nice that, for example, thanks to Kipling, even non-dress-wearers (include myself in that fraction of the universe) can get their share of Peter Pilotto's inimitable patterns. And I would actually be considering to buy one, were it not for the hideous little Kipling label tag (cutting these things off always ends badly, I usually destroy my recently purchased goods) and somehow, for the overall look of the thing ...

LAST LOOK: ARS HOMOEROTICA in WARSZAW

The video work "Sex and the City" (2008) by Rafalala replaces New York City with Warsaw, and the SATC lot with a Polish cross-dressing artist. That's the way we like it!

... ever since I went to Warsaw in July to take part in this year's very special and I'd almost like to say *ground breaking* edition of Europride, I meant to blog about this.

Finally, Michelangelo's David (or what looks like his twin brother) was endowed with what he had deserved from the very beginning. No more mini genitals in Krysztof Malec's "Nude" (1994).

As a matter of fact, the National Museum in Warsaw put together a special, unprecedented and let's even say daring exhibition for the occasion: the show is entitled ARS HOMOEROTICA (curated by Paweł Leszkowicz) - and it remains open until September 5.

Needless to say, for many a conservative and/or homophobic soul, this exhibition was too much to put up with (this included some of the exhibition watchdogs, by the way - whereas others, some very kind old ladies, obviously enjoyed themselves in there - hooray, I say...).

From Buenos Aires with love: Laura Pawela's photo series "Terrorismo lésbico" documents stencils from Argentina's adorable capital city. "No soy lo que pensás", boludo!

A fascinating panorama of Polish contemporary art and works by artists from the international scene, from the past and the present, were shown alongside each other.

With two bland white cotton shirts silently rotating in an installation suspended from the ceiling, Tomasz Kawszyn created a very strong and powerful work. "Love" (2009) commemorates two teenage boys, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, who were executed for homosexual relations in Iran in July 2005.

Considering the fact that the exhibition was shown in Warsaw, I think it was worthwhile to take a closer look at the Polish contributions. Some more silent works were shown alongside dramatic stageings and even fun approaches of the (alas, very vast) topic of homoeroticism and homosexuality.

Definitely a very interesting exhibitiona, and a very courageous and important impulse, too ...