 |
| Collection: Zweimaederlhaus (Source) |
Susanne Bisovsky is one of my favourite fashion designers and I've been wanting to introduce you to her work for a long time. Well, it's never too late, I guess.
Susanne Bisovsky is from Austria and just like Lena Hoschek, who has also inspired many an inspiration post on the blogosphere, studied under Vivienne Westwood. Bisovsky's strong interest in fashion history and her mixing of styles of the past with modern influences truly attests to this.
.jpg) |
| Collection: Innocentia (Source) |
I see Bisovsky's clothes not only as fashion but as a hybrid form of art, fashion and photography. Her creations are not necessarily particularly wearable but nonetheless offer a wealth of inspiration. They are very opulent and fairy-tale like. I like the mix and clash of colours, patterns and cultural influences. There is definitely a sense of exuberance to her designs.
 |
| Collection: Frida II (Source) |
Bisovsky is also unique in that she turns the perennial cycle of ever newer trends and fashions on its head. Her Pret-a-Porter collection Mitgift - one of my favourites - celebrates the value and preservation of clothes, instead of focusing on their constant replacement. Mitgift is the German word for dowry. A concept that is no longer practised in modern-day Western cultures - at least not in the classic sense. Nowadays I see dowries as often taking the form of the family of the wife or husband paying outlandish sums towards outlandish weddings - capital that is consumed rather than preserved and passed on through generations.
 |
| Collection: Mitgift 3 (Source) |
.jpg) |
| Collection: Mitgift 3 (Source) |
Bisovsky also has a Haute Couture collection called Everlasting Collection, in which each subsequent collection is a re-usal, or refashion if you like, of previous collections. Garments are reworked for years and then put into a new context.
 |
| Collection: Everlasting Collection II (Source) |
 |
| Collection: Everlasting Collection II (Source) |
In a foreword to Everlasting Collection at Tokyo Fashion Week 2010 Elisabeth Laengle describes Susanne Bisovsky
"[...] as an exception in fashion, who mistrusts the zeitgeist and the principle of destructing the contemporary. She develops her own way of reanimating the past and transforms known pieces into something unknown that is beyond the tides of current fashion." (Source; my translation)
 |
| Poster of an exhibition of hers in Vienna - unfortunately it was only a photo show and none of her actual clothes were exhibited |
Do check out her website, where you can find more beautiful photos and also some videos of her collections. She also has some fun specials, like a paper doll and scroll-over 3D images.
What do you think of Susanne Bisovsky? Do you like her aesthetic?
(On a different note: Why does my LinkWithin widget show weird posts that were never on this blog??? Hmmm...maybe it takes some time to update...)