Highlights from Vienna Fashion Week 2015

As we’ve written before, Vienna Fashion Week 2015, took place mid-September at the MuseumsQuartier in the Austrian capital.

The event featured over 60 fashion shows, including two shows that showcased designs created by the students of two of Vienna’s fashion schools and many other side events.

The fashion-studded week opened with a show by Marina Hoermanseder, who became famous worldwide after her name and her designs became associated with Lady Gaga.

As part of their fashion shows, some designers chose to include dancing or other non-traditional elements such as videos, in their shows. One show even ended with a performance by singer Emma Lanford.

There were many interesting things to see on the runway: creative uses of colors, of patterns, of material and of proportions, but what was also interesting was what there was not so much of. Compared to other Fashion Weeks, despite many avant-garde looks, this year’s VFW kept it pretty covered, more in the women’s department than in the menswear shows (this also depends on whether you count shirtless men as “nudity”). Of course, there were some designs that featured extremely see-through materials or that played with showing skin very much, both when it came to womenswear and to menswear, but the overall vibe of the week was not a very nude one. We’re not saying this is good or bad, it’s just different from what many designers choose to put out there.

On the other side, when it came to political messages, there was a lot to see, but we’d rather not focus on those, as debating politics is not the purpose of our publication. Unless, of course, it has something to do with the politics of dressing up, with topic such as body image or other fashion, appearance and men’s lifestyle topics.

And, speaking of bold messages, sometimes people who attended the shows were more colorful and more dressed up than the looks on the runway. Our hint: let the show be on the runway, don’t overdress for a fashion show; it will only make you look like a novice trying to impress everybody.

Celebrities that attend fashion shows do tend to be a bit over-styled, to look well on camera and to individualize themselves (and Vienna has plenty of local celebrities and fashion bloggers who share photos of their outfits on a regular basis too), but if you are a regular person, we advise you not to be more dressed than the models on the runway.

Let’s take a look at some visual highlights from the many shows that took place during the MuseumsQuartier Vienna Fashion Week 2015: