This can be done either by uploading images yourself or, if you find interesting images in the web 2.0, ‘pin’ these together with the link to the original website on your own profile site.

We looked at this new site and do like the foodie community as well as the different fashion images, perhaps our own profile makes sense as we have plenty of images we can ‘pin’ and share …

We also looked at posterous.com and the national site soup.io and came to the conclusion that there is a new field within social media to look at …

1. Please try describe yourself in just 5 words
freestyle-perfectionist, curious-ignorant, playful-thinker, steady-spontaneous, seriously-sunny

2. Tell us a bit about „Doris Darling“, what is it all about?
Doris Darling is the name for my new label I just started 2012. It is a name that’s obviously fake and shows there is something going on. I call myself a universal designer, because I mix different disciplines in my work: product & interior styling, costume & performance solutions and textile & wallpaper design and more. I studied at 3 different universities in 3 different countries: Fashion Design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (teacher: Viktor & Rolf, Raf Simons), environmental art in Helsinki/ Finland and Luxury Product Design in Lausanne/Switzerland (teacher: Barber & Osgerby, Ronan Bouroullec…)

Now I am invited to exhibit at the ‘Salone Satellite’ which will take place from 17. – 22. April 2012 in Milano. This is the avantgarde section of the original ‘Salone del Mobile’ especially for young talents to give them the chance to get connected to producers or design studios. On my website you can see at which booth number you can find me.

3. Please give us a short summary of your biography
I grew up in the Austrian country side, after academic high school I studied Fashion Design. My work was something else then fashion: I sculptured dresses out of fabric or made a collection of pieces that were hand painted and could be worn as dresses or be hung up the walls as pictures. That‘s why I was invited to do an exhibition at an Art Gallery with 3 of my fashion collections. After that my work got more productive: I invented characters and designed a small universe around them: clothes, objects and even a song with a music video. With the invented character of the Swan-Lady and her Label ‘Disaster Deluxe’ I was invited to the ‘Design BLOK’ to Prag. The fashion show was more performance and the „Swan Lamps“ and portraits of the Swan Lady were a bit freaky, but the visitors liked it a lot. The excursions into the art world are great, but I wanted to return more to the design world, that‘s why I applied at the ECAL in Lausanne for a Postgraduate in Luxury Product Design. That was a fantastic time because we worked together with different companies from France and Switzerland. Since last autumn I am back in Vienna working on the label and preparing for the ‘Salone Satellite’.

4. How are the products of Doris Darling positioned & sold?
*Doris Darling* is not mainly producing products, I am more a concept studio that is open for partnerships like doing interior design together with architects for bars or hotels or creating costumes for theaters. The „I am Lamp“ lamps are a limited edition of performance lamps inspired by bodybuilder weights. At the ‘Salone Satellite’ the visitors are invited to pose with my lamps in front of my camera. The pictures will be available from the beginning of the 17^th April on my webpage. After the exhibition they will be in a different more home-friendly version in some shops in Vienna. And maybe also in Milano?! Who knows… besides that I am working on a luxury souvenir collection for Vienna which will be presented in autumn 2012 during the ‘Vienna Design Week’. My first souvenir products are luxury snow globes made of mouth blown glass and aluminum rocks inside. They will be also shown in Milano and afterwards produced in a cheaper version for different museum shops. My products are toys for adults which evoke the play full side in the people.

5. We like the name of your website but can you tell us how this name came come up?
My Name is Doris Zaiser but concerning my work I am Doris Darling. It makes it easier changing from private life to work mode. It is like Bruce Wayne changing into Batman, or Doctor Jekyll turning into Mr. Hyde or the Baccarat Crystal Animals becoming party animals:

Watch the Baccarat Partyanimals Video I produced at ECAL:

6. What is your personal opinion about blogging? Does it make sense and if yes why?
I think it is great to exchange and share information. For example when travelling to a city it is very useful when people share their own experiences on a blog so we could use it as a guide to find nice bars, shops or interesting events.

7. What are your TOP 5 favorite design products?
I don‘t have a top list of design products. I like so many various new developments I come across in furniture, fashion, food, architecture and art. In the moment I am fascinated by glass works from the last decades of Venini Glass Manufacture and of the Litalla Manufacture in Finland.

8. What could be in your opinion the lamp of the future?
Maybe we can manipulate glowing deep water organisms or we paint the walls with radioactive bacteria and by calling them with different names they change intensity and color?

9. What are the future plans for „Doris Darling“?
The near future plans are to develop my showpieces and the souvenirs. Besides that I am working on a chocolate and candy collection. Further I would like to do many other things: a perfume, a handbag collection and I would also like to play a role in a science fiction movie: Doris Darling VS. Godzilla!?

10. Any comments you would like to share with us?
Thanks to the photographer Bernhard Schramm (www.bernhardschramm.com) for the fantastic pics.
And please check out my website www.dorisdarling.at and the „I am Lamp“ project. If you can‘t come to the Milano to the ‘Salone Satellite’ you could dress yourself up as one of your TOP 5 design classic lamps, take a picture and send it to me and I will post it on my blog too. I would be delighted!

Last week we walked through the 7^th district in Vienna and discovered a building with the name The Fox House … we were a bit curious as there were many people in and outside this building and we actually did not know why …
We looked at their website and Facebook page and discovered a great initiative which we think we should post on our blog.

365 – The Fox House is an institution that supports street and urban photography and documentary photography of design and fashion. Until the end of 2012 the building is used as ‘cluster’ for the creative industry, which means that on a regular basis you will find exhibitions for photography at the gallery and the ‘off-space’. Designer at the Fashion Store (and these do change as well) will bring ‘fresh air’ into the all-day-fashion-life in Vienna. Also workstations for creative people and studios for artists are offered. The Fox Kitchen provides all the ‘creative minds’ with fresh cooked stuff. In addition parties and events as well as movie evenings are planned for the inner court area, which is also meant for ‘art installations’.

The opening took officially place on March 1^st, 2012 with an exhibition called ‘There was a time’ of the photographer Claudio Farkasch, showing some great images of the Vienna club scene. Lucky for us that the main organizer did send us some great images of this evening …

Enjoy and take a look when you are in Vienna and ‘just around the corner’

All images by Arno Ebner

1. Please try to describe yourself in 5 words that fit to you!
- joie de vivre
- organized
- analytic
- always open for adventures
- excuse me, where is the dancefloor?

2. Tell us a bit about your site and what it is all about!
The site’s concept is to regularly change the inspiring country and offer traditional designs converted into our western life style. The focus are regularly changing collections with limited editions. I believe in times of computerized mass production that it is important to come back to our roots and also highlight the imprint of the human hand and thus offer hand made, unique products.
I started with India and dresses made out of their traditional sari material. After this first success I concentrated myself on Morocco and especially leather work. The Abdillah Boots rock the online shop and are always immediately sold out. They even made it to German’s fashion magazine InStyle.

3. Why and when did you start with this site?
I studied International Business Administration but was always interested more in textiles and fashion and interior design, all my working experience during university came from this sector. After graduating I ended up in the Swiss finance world, a completely new world that was a very hard school. After some kind of burn out I quit and decided that it is the most important to do something you really really love in your life. And in my case that is travelling and fashion and exactly this is the concept behind my site. www.silviagattin.com is online since June 2010.

4. We discovered an initiative on your site called ‘hidden sale’, could you tell us more about that?
When I went online with my online shop I wanted to launch my products and organize a sale. Thinking about synergy effects and about some friends of mine that are also designers and/or self employed I decided to make this thing a bit bigger.
The first Hidden Sale took place in Julia Kutas’ “Hidden Kitchen” (thus the name) in Vienna’s city centre and because of the huge demand we needed bigger premises which is why the Hidden Sale moved to Hotel Le Meridien.

5. We also saw that you operate a blog? Why and what is the message you would like to bring out with your blog?
I use my blog especially for behind-the-scenes information, which are travel reports, my photos (I love photography), stories about my products, etc. For me it is important that my customers know from where my products come from and what story they have to tell.

6. Have you ever come across a blog that you thought was interesting and if yes, which one and why?
They are plenty of blogs I am following, one I can really recommend is: www.beachtomato.com , a combination of blog and shop (I love the sea

7. What is your personal opinion about exploring a blog? Does it make sense and if yes, why?
I think blogs are a fantastic way to spread all kind of information and it gives everybody a chance to do so and to self – actualize. The only problem is, that there a numerous, actually uncountable, blogs outside and unfortunately a lot of them are crap. But it definitely makes sense to explore every blog you come across, you can always come to know something new.

8. What is/are your favourite designers when it comes to fashion and why?
I love Italian family labels Etro and Missoni for their vivacious colours and crazy designs. French designer Isabel Marant I follow regularly, above all because she is as well inspired by boho, ethno and hippie fashion on a high level. So is Mathew Williamson.

9. What are your favourite countries when it comes to fashion and why?
Well, first of all absolutely Incredible India, a country full of amazing colours and textiles and especially interesting history. Next on list Magical Morocco and the 1001 – night atmosphere. The next countries I want to visit are Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Brasil, Laos, Kambodia, etc. – all places with ethnic history and beautiful designs and textiles.

Since 2009 the event Vienna Awards for Fashion & Lifestyle has got a fixed place in the Austrian fashion calendar, next to events like Modepalast, MQ Vienna Fashion Week and the Festival for Fashion & Photography.

In the past international VIP’s like Tatjana Patitz or Kiera Chaplin have ‘mixed’ themselves with the big names in the Austrian fashion industry and celebrated an evening full of glamour and lifestyle … no doubt to see some big names again this year.

On March 26^th, 2012 it’s time again for such a great evening … the location will be the Halle E of the Museums Quartier in Vienna. This year again prominent ‘fashionistas’, ‘creatistas’ and outstanding achievements will be rewarded in the following categories: Designer Branding, Designer, Hair Stylist, Stylist, Fashion Journalism, Photographer, Style Icon, Make Up, Accessoires Designer and Model.

For the 1^st time there will be a new category called Best Newcomer by Steffl where one of the following 3 designers will win a price that is set at EUR 10.000:

Mark & Julia www.markandjulia.com
Meshit www.meshit.at
Shakkei www.shakkei.de

Again … a promising event, where The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel is official hotel partner. We believe in young Austrian designers, the Austrian fashion industry and all that does support fashion for Vienna …

This festival, now for the 2^nd time in Vienna, will take place from March 23^rd – 25^th, 2012 at the Haus der Musik … at the inner courtyard of the location a few great acts will perform like the Austrian band Zeronic, listening to their music we would say ‘indie-rock’ or the band Giantree from Vienna, could one say ‘local Brit-rock’?

From Northern-Ireland the singer and piano player Peter Wilson alias ‘Duke Special’ will perform on March 23^rd, his music ranges between folk and soul.

On March 24^th one can see acts by Enno Bunger from Germany, Richmond Fontaine from Portland, Oregon (USA) and the German singer and songwriter Olli Schulz.

On March 25^th the festival is meant for kids, next to the possibility to visit the Haus der Musik their will be concerts for kids at 11.00 and 15.30.

Could one get a better feeling of spring when it is combined with some great music? Difficult question, depends on the kind of music but being honest … we definitely support this festival!

‘Fashionistas’, bloggers and ‘notorious fashion minds’ will meet each other, not only to spread some ideas on fashion in Vienna and/or Austria but also to talk about innovation in the Austrian fashion market. Speakers will include Yvan Rodic (Facehunter), Daniela Enzi (Deputy Director, Prok. MQ Vienna), Sabinna Rachimova (Broken Cookies), Alex Schönburg (agency 4e7) and Anouk Wipprecht (Tech Couture).

The speakers and the elite of bloggers and relevant minds from the Austrian fashion industry will meet at the Ring Suite of The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel. After the ‘talk’ there will be a Vodka Night at the bar ‘Drings’, hosted by Absolut Vodka.

The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel does support this event, as we love fashion and fashion is in our ‘DNA’ … due to that we offer 2 seats for this event … simply write a mail to ringblog@jjwhotels.com and tell us why we need to see you here as well, perhaps you are the lucky one …

Please do follow Notorious Mag, TEDx Vienna and all bloggers friends to be part of this discussion, everything you think and like about fashion in Austria, ideas, opinions, wishes, thoughts, future visions and so on …

Speakers Profile

Yvan Rodic (Facehunter) – a man out and about in London, an eye candy for the style hungry. He will talk about his experiences as a street style photographer and blogger since 2006 and how the work of fashion bloggers have influenced fashion in general.

Sabinna Rachimova – originally from Russia and one of the 2 ‘brains behind’ the blog ‘Broken Cookies’, currently studying Fashion Design in London. She will tell us more about being a fashion student living abroad and how her school incentives creativity among students and how the different teachers do share their knowledge.

Alex Schönburg – he is the owner of the agency 4e7 based in Vienna. He was responsible for repositioning the Sao Paolo Fashion Week, the 4^th largest fashion week in the world. He will share with us his experiences as to this ‘repositioning process’, how he transformed the Sao Paolo Fashion Week from a fashion event into a lifestyle information platform.

Anouk Wipprecht – she is ‘Tech Couture’ , based in The Netherlands and a rising star in the field of ‘fashionable technology’, a rare combination of sartorial knowhow combined with engineering smarts and style. She will talk about technology and fashion and how a techno-driven society is experimenting with new ways of expression in manufacturing and fashion design.

Daniela Enzi – Deputy Director, Prok. of the MQ Vienna and responsible for the overall positioning of the MQ Vienna, one of the 10 largest cultural institutions in the world. She will talk about how MQ Vienna sees fashion, how fashion is implemented in the overall strategy of MQ Vienna this year with the new initiative ‘MQ Summer of Fashion’ and if this strategy might help Vienna in becoming a fashion capital.

1) Please describe yourself in just 5 words.
LIANE AND THE FASHION SQUAD

2) Tell us a bit about the initiative TFS, what it stands for, what it means, when it started and what it is all about.
The Fashion Squad was founded actually as a result of several coincidences. Or let´s say: fate was our guide. As a creative freelance and independent fashion editor I was hired by HUMANIC in order to write a shoemanic blog. Although it is a corporate blog, the main spirit of a ‘shoeaddict’ like me, gave me a lot of independence, which is one of the main USP’s of a blog. Through this work I was always behind crazy shoes and stories. In London I met Sarah Toner an Ex Prima ballerina, who is teaching High Heels Classes. Her Book “Fabulous in High heels” was about to be released. Back in Vienna Martin Böhm, owner of Mg-Sound and Hitsquad offered me to publish the book in Austria and Germany. So we started to work in a team and created a big buzz around the book release followed by high heel classes.
www.fabinhighheels.com
So we found out, that we did great PR as side effect for HUMANIC, who sponsored this project. So as a result of this, HUMANIC asked us to take over the PR. And suddenly we found ourselves taking over the PR budget of a big international shoe brand. THE FASHION SQUAD was founded October 2011. We see THE FASHION SQUAD as taskforce behind the glamorous Fashion and Lifestyle Scene.

3) What are the plans of TFS in terms of “transporting Fashion”?
We see The Fashion Squad as Cross-Over-Agency, far beyond PR-Services. Brand Lobbying is one of our main services, which means we can only work for a label/brand/person, which or who we really can identify with. We work also as ambassadors for our clients and put all our private connections into our work. Fashion is in our blood, so anything connected to fashion touches us, further I have a long fashion-journalistic background ( ATV/ORF/ ORF NÖ/ WOMAN/ÖTZ etc.)

4) Why and what are the aims of your blog?
The blog shoemanic.com is a corporate blog, but has got a very unique reputation, which I mentioned also above. So anything I write is very personal and not at all corporate in a negative sense.

5) Your favourite blogs:
Some of my favourite blogs:
www.ashadedviewonfashion.com
seaofshoes.typepad.com
www.garancedore.fr/en
diaryofafashionmister.blogspot.com
www..fashionfreax.net
Of course all other fashion Blogs and shoe sites, but one I do follow constantly. tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com
And I am completely fan of Bill Cunningham´s Slideshow: video.nytimes.com

6) What is your personal opinion about exploring a blog?
A blog is a very personal, non-objective way to transport messages about certain topics. But despite this fact, the best blogs are on an journalistic basics, which means a blog post should be the perfect mix between personal opinion and a good research and also balancing objective circumstances. A bit “oxymoron”, but for me a blog is best, when you don’t abuse the power in writing anything you want, because of course one has responsibility, because could affect people’s mind and change it.

7) Your favourite designers:
I love Jean Paul Gaultier, Stella Mc Cartney, Phillip Lim, Alber Elbaz (Lanvin), Susanne Bisovsky (Austrian) and many more …

What are the future plans for TFS?
We are intending to work internationally and are really happy to collaborate with other fashion agencies and platforms. The fusion of Music and Fashion is also one of our long term visions and projects and as we are connected to “Mg Sound Studios” and “Hit Squad” (Partners of TFS) we are full of ‘eventainment ideas’, ready to put in practice.

9) One of our long term visions is, to establish Vienna as Fashion Capital, seen as the place for an international exchange of anything which is connected to fashion.

Hotel The Exchange is a concept by Suzanne Oxenaar and Otto Nan, initiators of the Lloyd Hotel & Cultural Embassy in Amsterdam. Hotel The Exchange is part of ‘The Red Carpet’, an urban-renewal project that is aimed at giving the area ‘Damrak’ a more diverse and fashionable look.

The hotel has 61 rooms, each room has been designed and dressed by graduates and alumni of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI). Eight students and alumni were selected to drive the vision of the hotel rooms. They created designs using fashion metaphors. Before the process of ‘dressing up’ began, fabric designs took form under the tutelage of Dutch Studio INA MATT in cooperation with the Dutch Textile Museum. Different areas of the hotel were accessorized with luxury items like a 20-meter long illuminating necklace, cosy elevator coats, a fancy reception dressed as a bag and endless striped socks throughout the hallways.

Due to its unconventional spirit, Hotel The Exchange offers guests a choice of rooms ranging from 1 to 5 stars. Rooms received special names, related to the concept, like ‘Wall Flower’, where the room is embellished with paper flowers like a little girl’s prom dress, ‘The Pleats Room’, where the inspiration came from the pleats and folds in a simple white T-shirt when worn. Other names are ‘Woven Cocoon’, ‘City Camouflage’, ‘Building a View’, ‘Urban Crafts’, I Still Remember’ and so on.

The integrated shop called ‘OPTIONS!’ is a 230 m2 contemporary department store where shoppers can find a special mix of products, ranging from exciting designs from foreign countries to collaborations with local producers.

The restaurant ‘Stock’ caters to the paradox of fast living and slow food……..it quietly acknowledges the vibrant nightlife of the city with an indulgent all-day breakfast as well as a ‘hit-and-run’ menu of soups and sandwiches.

This new hotel concept and the different room concepts is set up to appeal to a totally different customer/guest. As the concept is not typically being transported as ‘fashion hotel’ it is in our opinion merely aiming at attracting guests that do like the idea of staying in a room that has been designed by a fashion designer, or like the concept ‘architecture meets fashion’. It will however attract ‘fashionistas’, no doubt about that, and guests that would like to experience something totally new and emerging. It will also contribute to the overall concept behind ‘The Red Carpet’ and could be seen as future concept that can easily be implemented on a worldwide level……be honest, in every key hub city there are fashion institutes and designers. We love it and will definitely seek the opportunity to stay at this hotel!