Austria flaunts its heritage in exuberant fashion. Vienna's bombastic Habsburg palaces and Salzburg's baroque splendour are great, but dig deeper and you'll unearth Stone Age settlements, Roman ruins and vibrant medieval festivals. You barely need to look for culture here - it waltzes right up to you.
This land of dizzying peaks, cobalt lakes and rushing rivers creates a breathtaking backdrop for outdoor pursuits. Whether you want to climb mountains in Tyrol or carve up the slopes in the Alps, freewheel along the Danube or paddle the raging Inn River, Austria's your one-stop shop!
I walked around the beautiful streets of Vienna wondering what exactly is real Austrian fashion like? How does Austrian fashion reflects the people’s way of life? Does an Austrian woman be recognized as one when mixed with other cultures? Get ready to stroll along the glitz and glamour of Vienna’s more popular fashion boutiques.
Michel Mayer is known for the extravagant and reduced women’s apparel that he creates. Shella Kann is famous for her extravagance. But for business wear, Doris Ainedter would be your best Viennese bet. All three shops are found in downtown Vienna.
For the younger Austrian fashionistas, there is Gegen Alltag and Elfenkleid while for those that desire to live life in full colors, Hermine Span’s collection is the most suitable. Check her collection at her popular shop in Vienna called the “Garage Span”.
World-famous Helmut Lang is known for very minimalist designs with very sharp cuts that created elegant silhouettes. The trademark was originally made for male fashion but then branched out later on to women’s wardrobe in Paris and also in New York. The brand peaked in the 1980s but a failed partnership with Prada in late 1990s made the brand waver. The last Helmut Lang shop to shut was the one in Paris, just last year. But good news to all is that it is currently awaiting revival through a Japanese company.
Nowadays, traditional national costumes are worn only by folkloric groups during special occasions but that is not the case in Austria because in some parts of the country, the popularity of the tracht is being revived and made stylish.
The tracht is a traditional German costume similarly used in Austria. In olden times, this piece of clothing identifies a person’s social, origin and trade. Today, renewed interest in the tracht, or at least modern wear with traces of it are available in brands like Sportalm, Geiger and Tostmann. In fact, this tracht revival has inspired the Landhausmode, a new fashion style akin to Country Estate Style. This trend is characterized by the use of linen cloth, loden felt and embroidery, and is majorly influenced by the costumes of peasants, farmers and rural folk of old.
For ladies, the same modernization of the traditional dirndl is in progress. In German slang, the dirndl refers to a juvenile lass. Traditionally, however, the dirndl refers to a tightfitting bodice paired with a differently colored apron. It can either be sleeveless mixed and matched with a blouse, or it can also be a high necked sleeved blouse. This whole ensemble, of course, was not properly complete without an elaborate hat. Today, with the Landhausmode fashion, dirndl dresses are again made popular but are made trendier and more provocative. So the Austrians wear their traditional costumes proud because it has been updated and created elegantly in style to suit this generation’s fashion sense. Cheers to the revival of these two traditional costumes. At least now they are not just worn for posterity, they are actually fashionable!
