This season we attended MQ Vienna Fashion Week. Stationed in front of one of the largest art and cultural complexes in the world, like other big fashion weeks, but in variable style execution. From being allowed backstage as the models calmly waited for the show to begin, to noticing the differential styles amongst the attendees, to gauging the popularity of brands based on attendance, we were able to see what makes MQ Vienna so unique.
Let’s begin with their street style. I hate getting dress up for fashion weeks. (Can I not admit that? Oh, well… I do.) I feel like it’s turned into a huge circus of “stylists” prancing around Lincoln Center’s, or walking up and down the cobbles of Somerset House, hoping to photobomb a photographers shot. One can never tell who’s who because in a world so ambiguous, everyone is a somebody when in a red-soled patent leather pump or donning a trench in plaid that may or may not have one to many crosshatches.
And that’s what I loved about MQ Vienna. It wasn’t about that. To be honest, the show wasn’t about the guests. The shows were about the designers, their creations, and their efficiency to wow the crowds, season after season. Yes there were people who stood out from the crowd, as it is in every industry of life, but not for attention.
And then, there’s Pitour Oberfrank, the designer behind her self-titled line as well as co-founder of MQ Vienna Fashion Week. Former student of Helmut Lang, Pitour started her brand in 2005, 4 years before MQ Vienna. Known for her addition of handmade details, asymmetrical lines, and choice of fabrics, she’s remained a large part of Austria’s fashion industry by mixing cultural eccentricities.
This Spring/Summer 2014 season, Pitour consisted of safari solid-colored fabrics, that moved with each sway. Nothing to form-fitting, slinking the curvatures to display the hips, but leaving space for comfortability. It’s that collection that always you to layer without adding extra bulk for Fall/Winter, and allows one to wear solo for the Spring/Summer sun.
All photos taken with Ricoh’s PENTAX K-50.