Vienna Fashion Week. 20: State Award for Susanne Bisovsky

The award from the Ministry of Culture went to Susanne Bisovsky, whose label also celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Christina Seewald accepted the Fashion Award of the City of Vienna. Both are endowed with 10,000 euros each. Due to Corona, the twelfth edition of Fashion Week only lasts until Saturday, the support program has been reduced, as has the number of guests: while up to 1,000 visitors usually fill the fashion tent in the Barrio de Museums, this time there should be less than half. Furthermore, every second place remains empty for the sake of maintaining distance. There are stations with sanitizers and for taking temperature, pre-registration and mask requirement for everyone, including models away from the catwalk. Some fashion designers have already incorporated mouth and nose protection into their new collections.

“At times like these, it is very important to stick together and pool capabilities,” emphasized AFA Director Camille Boyer and fashion week organizers Elvyra Geyer, Zigi Mueller-Matyas and Maria Oberfrank from “creative headz.” Skipping fashion week, a major “sign of life” for the national design industry, was not an option. The planning was continuously adapted to the epidemiological situation.

The “Outstanding Artist Award for Experimental Fashion Design” from the Ministry of Culture is one of the state awards of the Republic of Austria. This year he was honored for the fifth time: Susanne Bisovsky, who was born in Linz and raised in Vienna, dedicates her historically textile-inspired creations to “Viennese beauty” and “Viennese chic”. Her salon is located on the first floor of an old silk factory in the new building: in Brillantengrund at Seidengasse 13, many designs are designed, tested and also manufactured.

The award recognizes his innovative contribution to the creation of contemporary fashion and his expressive work, which his brand has established internationally outside the mainstream. “For 30 years, Susanne Bisovsky has been exploring the boundaries between tradition and the avant-garde in her work by artistically dissolving the clichés of costume and folklore,” the jury statement said. A timeless style beyond short-term fashion memory is important to her, emphasizes the fashion designer over and over again.

The city of Vienna sees its annual fashion award as a start-up aid for younger brands internationally. Graz-born Christina Seewald founded her weaving brand under her own name in 2019. She mixes fine yarns and tailoring to create radical looks. The jury sees them “in a unique zone of tension between loungewear and tailoring” and praised the concentration on crafts and local production.

INFO: MQ Vienna Fashion Week. 20, September 7-12, www.austrianfashionassociation.at – www.mqvfw.com – Tickets available at: www.mqvfw.com/tickets