What is ’7tm’ all about?
Well, this platform exists since 2008 and was established to target creative, playful and curious consumers, consumers that want something special when it comes to buying fashion & design … which they get if you look at the different shops and locations, they all provide the feeling of being special and individual for consumers.
It is not simply ‘retailing’, no, it is an initiative where clustering fashion & design, being together but also being individual, city branding and local ‘area’ consumption come together.

The website www.7tm.at shows not only all the different shops, the shop owners and their concept & products, it also offers special ‘shop tours’, a blog and different recommendations from various people from the ‘scene’.
This platform promotes, together with the Vienna Tourism Board, the Austrian National Tourist Office and some selected hotels in Vienna 58 attractive and individual shops and stores.

Of course we searched through the web 2.0 to see if there are similar concepts around the globe … it seems that ’7tm’ is really unique, we could not find any comparable platform…

Plan this in for your next trip to Vienna and have a look yourself, you will not get disappointed …

1. Who are you?

2. What do you like about what you do?
I like the creative diversification and the possibility to meet interesting people with different backgrounds that both go along with the work on my culinary projects. Facing new challenges every day. Combining my professional skills as a designer with my love for food and all things related. In this context I love working for people respectively with people who have a preference for dining, cuisine and – of course – food in general. Satisfying the needs of my clients by creating something very unique and very emotional, but also keeping the rational and economic aspects of cuisine in sight.

3. What don’t you like about what you do?
There´s nothing what I don´t like, because what I do is what I am. The only thing negative to mention here is the all day officialism or bureaucracy that sometimes constrains creative processes and work.

4. Please tell us about your company ajiDesign!
The term aji is borrowed from the Japanese language and can be translated as taste, flavour or aroma. In this context ajiDesign is an agency/company for food and culinary design that acts service oriented and addresses to hoteliers, gastronomes, chefs, food-companies respectively the food industry and everyone who is engaged in dining, cuisine and the culture of enjoying it.
The core competence of ajiDesign is the creation of innovative concepts, processes and products that are a profit making and economic efficient connection of culinary terms and design. Therefore ajiDesign acts close to the client and his product. The creative work is aimed at generating factors of uniqueness and success. By this, ajiDesign helps the client to tap his economic potential completely. ajiDesign offers design, consulting, strategy design and development in the fields of culinary concepts, processes and product-design.

5. Are you working with blogs and if yes, what is your favourite blog?
I´m working with blogs from time to time, it´s a source of inspiration. My favourite right now is www.playingwithfireandwater.com, a great blog from Linda. She is a freelance chef in the US.
Great dishes, great ideas, great blog!

6. Tell us about food and culinaric design and its advantages for the industry!
Food and/or culinary design is a very wide field with endless opportunities for working creative. Both, food and design, are very emotional aspects of life and when brought together the result is more than just the sum of it´s single parts. ajiDesign divides his fields of activity into three main groups and each of them refers to another aspect respectively point of view on the combination of food and design. Those fields are

• Culinary concepts

In this field ajiDesign helps the client to present his gastronomic concept or company as a consistent package in order to communicate all qualities of the company in an aesthetic and also distinctive way. This includes the clients´ whole corporate design but also means working on new concepts for the interiors of a restaurant, a hotel or even a food-company. Besides that, ajiDesign tends to extend the existing business concept of the clients company by exploring new and economic worthwhile business areas. Based on the analysis of the structural, economical and regional conditions ajiDesign develops innovative ways to acuminate the profile of the client´s culinary brand.

• Culinary process

ajiDesign works on techniques and ideas to improve the enjoyment of eating. In this field ajiDesign concentrates on the way we perceive culinary pleasure and how this knowledge can be used to initiate an additional benefit for the luncher. Therefore the creative dialogue with a chef is necessary, because ajiDesign wants to improve his or her style of cooking by adding new aspects to it. Those aspects include scientific knowledge and different forms of creativity that are transferred into practical forms of appliance. The result of such a culinary process can be a new recipe, an uncommon combination of different flavours or even a new technical concept for the preparation of food.

• Product-design

ajidesign offers the client the design of his own unique table- and flatware and the development of new tools to present and serve food and dishes. The aim is here, to initiate new emotions and qualities of taste. Dining shall be seen as an event and a culinary story which is told by the chef. In this context ajidesign plays the role of a mediator, who creates the proper tools for presenting and serving the main actors of the story: the dishes.

Besides all the benefits for the client and/or the industry mentioned, there are some outstanding ones.

1. Innovative food/culinary concepts acuminate a brands profile and it´s market position
2. Stand alone features for a culinary brand, restaurant or hotel
3. ajiDesign helps the client to optimize their product and – by doing so – to increase their customers loyalty.
4. The work on culinary processes helps to create new and interesting dishes and to optimize existing dishes and recipes. It´s also possible to replace allergens by other ingredients without altering the overall impression of the dish´s taste. By choosing the right ingredients Chefs can prepare their meals without any use of artificial flavours or flavour enhancers and as a surplus can reduce their costs.
5. Having a designer´s point of view on food, the food market and the gastronomy leads to uncommon, innovative, forward-going products and concepts, that even may help to increase the level of cuisine in general – and how we percept it.

6. Any comments you want to share with us?
Respect food, but don´t mind playing with it. It might develop into a great meal!
AND: visite my website www.aji-design.de

From 2 stars to 5 stars, these boutique or design hotels provide their guests with the ultimate experience. The majority of these hotels also operate totally individually and can do things bigger ‘chain hotels’ sometimes cannot do. They experience with social media, start partnerships with luxury brands, start with their own application or twitter all over the place.

As we operate our own blog we thought it would be nice to show you some of our ‘competitors’, hotels that also run a blog.

The Drawing Room
The first hotel blog we want to share with you is that of The Greenwich Hotel in New York. This hotel, part of Leading Hotels of the World, offers its guest 88 rooms and suites of which no two are alike. Their blog is called ‘The Drawing Room’ and tells about cultural wanderings through The Greenwich Hotel, Tribeca and beyond.

Happy Hotelier
Another interesting and very popular hotel blog is called ‘Happy Hotelier’ run by a Dutch guy called Guido van den Elshout. We already met him a few years ago and he is what we call a ‘passionate social media hotelier’ of The Haagsche Suites in The Hague, Netherlands. His blog seems to be very popular if you look at the number of comments on his postings and the way his blog has been set-up.

RUMOR
The third hotel and accompanying blog we want to share with you is RUMOR, the Las Vegas Boutique Resort. It looks like a great hotel featuring great stylish suites (Premium Oasis Suite, what a name!) and they operate an event blog where you can read about numerous events they have done.

Florence Blog
The Kursonia boutique hotel in Florence, Italy literally will leave you speechless, especially when you read their blog … the goal of this blog is ‘to experience Florence from the inside’.

May Fair Hotel Blog
The traditional May Fair Hotel in London is not a typical boutique hotel although their overall ‘look and feel’ does tell you a different story, their blog is wonderful, great images and telling you all about what is ‘in’ in London.

Avenue Hotel
Last but not least, the blog of the Avenue Hotel in Copenhagen, they write about events in Copenhagen, events at the hotel, great!!

The number of hotels starting with their own blog is slowly growing and if you look at how these blogs are operated you can see that every hotel has defined their own strategy to ‘catch’ their guests … it is definitely not a must to have a blog but it might help you to create more awareness in the virtual world about your hotel, give it a try …

How did we get in touch with them? They were one of our partners at the Lake’s Fashion Days this year and did bring us some great designers. As they are very creative which you will see when reading the interview we thought we should put them a bit more ‘in the picture’.

1. Who are you and why has ‘fashion’ become part of your life?
I am Regine and one of the founding member of www.nelou.com. My business partner Boris, a graphic designer had a few designer friends and decided it was time for everyone to know about those beautiful items they create. I realized, while I was in Bangladesh working for the Grameen Bank, that there is a huge market for independent design worldwide. Wearing big brands’ clothes is out – those were the 90´s. Now, individuality in the way we dress ourselves is key to our personality.

2. Please try to tell us in close to 50 words what ‚NELOU‘ is all about!
The idea of nelou is to create a fashion village. Everyone, anywhere in the world should be able to wear whatever they like. For that we need to be able to access fashion from around the world. So nelou brings together designers and consumers. Dressing the way you like is now a walk in the park!!!

3. What are your daily working activities for ‘NELOU’?
More and more fashion events want us as partners, so we are very busy with selecting the right designer for the events. For example during Berlin Fashion Week we were partners of the Ramazzotti Runway Award. The winner was one of our labels.
We are just in the process of launching a magazine in print and online. The first fashion magazine from which the products are purchasable. Otherwise we do a lot of marketing and improving the website.

4. Please tell us which project are coming up!
We are partners of the MQ Vienna Fashion Week which takes place this year in September, so we are getting ready for that. Also we are very busy with the launch of our new magazine. The Ring and nelou will also be working together on fashion events in 2011. Sooo many things that are happening. The platform is constantly changing as well – so that is an ongoing project!!

5. Tell us about your most remarkable experiences in the fashion industry!
The Lake’s Fashion Days as well as the Ramazzotti Runway Award during Berlin Fashion Week were definitely some of our highlights. We only started this company beginning of 2011 but it is going soooo well. More and more events want to partner with us. The quality of designer we present on our website is increasing. We currently present 300 designers from 16 countries and over 3000 products.

6. Are there any trends you see in the fashion industry which you want to share with us?
Green Fashion, independent fashion, young fashion is more on the radar of people than ever. Lady Gaga is on of the main supporters of young and independent design and that becomes more relevant to you and I by the day!!! Hence we started nelou.tv – a talk show kind of format where we introduce the designers behind the label in a more funny kind of way. People want to identify with the designers whose clothes they are wearing. Here on example: Interview with Dörte Kaufmann:

7. Why should people visit www.nelou.com?
If you want to express your own style, be independent of trends and just really express yourself, nelou is the place for you. We have designers from 16 countries – hence a rather diverse set of trends. You can also get to know the designers whose clothes you are wearing by watching nelou.tv.

8. Any comments you want to share with us?
For anyone interested in getting in touch with us, Stylists, Press, PR, Magazines, Newspapers, Designers, Consumers, Fashionistas, anyone really, we are more than delighted in hearing from you.
Please contact us through mail@nelou.com.

1. Who are you?

2. What do you like about what you do?
We like to give our guests a very relaxed atmosphere, where they can feel like in their own livingroom in our house, in a stylish and modern way with cool eatch different rooms, with a very good restaurant and a phantastic spa-area where you can see the big mountains of the Zillertaler-Alps.

3. What don’t you like about what you do?
We like what we do, and that is the point, maybe the different to the others!!!

4. Please tell us about your Lifestyle Hotel ‘Mountain & Soul’ and your aims with it?
With Mountain and Soul we are trying to create a new concept in the mountains with a new soul and a new spirit. This is where lifestyle, art and design, relaxation, fun and vitality meet! A young, dynamic team contributes to the hip and trendy concept with passion, charm, intuition and the tendency to lateral thinking and creates a new definition of hospitality.

5. Are you already working with blogs and if yes, what is your favourite blog?
No, this is the first time, and we are very interested on it!

6. Is your hotel listed on Facebook and if yes, why did you decide to do that?
We are on facebook, at first with our Hotel Mountain&Soul as a grouppage and then with our ala carte restaurant ”soulkitchen” ! Facebook is a good base to info all persons in our area, when we have some specials, event´s, daily dishes …

7. Your TOP 3 hotel experiences and why?
There are a lot of Hotels in Zillertal, but no one compare with us!

8. Your TOP 3 food/restaurant experiences and why?
Also there are many good restaurants, traditional, oldschool, newschool, local fast food and different like the others … our soulkitchen!

9. Can you give our visitors some information on what they need to see/visit when staying at your hotel?
For sure the Mountains, in summer with hiking, paragliding, raften, canyoning, mountainbiking, racebike, the nature in the sidevallys in Zillertal, in winter the great Skiareas in the whole valley and for all over the year for sure the tuxer glacier! the local food, the friendly Austrian people … you have to see, we don´t can explain!

10. Any comments you want to share with us?
come & see @ mountain & Soul and enjoy the spirit with us together!

- Who are you?
My name is Claudia Rosa Lukas, I am the co-founder and the main force behind the online presence of AUSTRIANFASHION.net.

- What do you like about what you do?
Thinking of simple ideas and making them big.

- What don’t you like about what you do?
Seeing simple ideas get complicated.

- Please tell us about AUSTRIANFASHION.NET and your goals.
Initiated by a group of independent fashion designers, AUSTRIANFASHION.NET was launched in September 07 as a unique networking platform for the Austrian fashion industry. From its first hour, the website was conceived as a synergetic initiative to support young and upcoming designers by putting their work into the limelight.
AUSTRIANFASHION.NET offers relevant information for all designers, art institutions, journalists and fashionistas eager to know more about the country’s very much alive fashion scene.

In addition, editorial contributions provide in-depth coverage of all important fashion events in Austria as well as of venues abroad that mark the appearance of Austrian fashion designers.

One of the founders’ main aims was to generate increased interest for the multi-faceted landscape of Austrian fashion and to trigger passionate discussions about its potential for the future.

AUSTRIANFASHION.NET combines all the advantages of independent and fast-moving online publishing. Once again, it allows a broad readership to delve into Austria’s fashion scene and learn about it from a dedicated and entertaining insiders’ perspective.
Besides information, communication and constant research, we biannually publish the Austrian Fashion Guide, which offers an overview of Austrian designers showing their collections at the Paris Fashion Week.

Six thousand copies of the guide are printed and distributed to an international audience of buyers, stylists and fashion journalists.

The guide can be downloaded here.

At the beginning of May 2009, a fair for fashion designers and manufacturers took place in Vienna for the very first time. The fair was initiated by AUSTRIANFASHION.NET and was quite successful.

- Are you working with blogs and if yes, what is your favourite blog?
Of course we are working with several blogs and sites similar to ours, both at a national and international level. We strongly believe in networking. This is the only way to make sure your message gets heard. It was therefore possible – in less than one year – to create an effective network comprising local and international editors. This reflects the basic idea of the internet as an ever-changing community engaged in continuous conversation. A steadily growing number of visitors appreciate this multifaceted inside look into a wide range of topics covered.

- Your experiences with the fashion industry in Austria?
Compared to the increasing number of independent Austrian fashion labels, the industry is very small.
Lots of new labels have been founded since 2000 because of the lack of employment opportunities in this field.
Still lots of information, subsidies and networking is required to understand and work with this multi-faceted landscape of Austrian fashion on an industrially manufactured basis, including tradition and innovation at the same time. There is still a lot of work to do and that is very challenging!

- Any other comments you want to share with us?
Let’s do things exactly right.

Special VIP guest this year was Agatha Luiz de la Prada, the opening event was dedicated to her label.

A special side event was initiated by Maria Ratzinger (Stylekingdom) and Viktoria Egger (Modeltalk) exclusively for The Ring, Vienna´s Casual Luxury Hotel. A “fashion blogger lunch” with a 10 fashion bloggers together with the designer Marcos Valenzuela-Abril (Tiberius) on Sunday, September 26^th. He presented his work and talked about the different shows he attended and will attend in the future at The Ring Suite, followed by a 3-course lunch at the hotel restaurant “at eight“.

The bloggers that did attend were:

• Anna Heuberger www.hpunktanna.com
• Isabelle Spreckelsen fashionsemmerl.blogspot.com
• Leni Garibov www.sassystylishsmart.blogspot.com
• Maria Ratzinger stylekingdom.com
• Michaela Amort tschilp.com
• Michaela Ambos www.cooloutfit.at
• Viktoria Egger www.modeltalk.at
• Teresa Hammerl stylekingdom.com/teresa/
• Robert Schermann 8785leavinglychee.wordpress.com
• The Pet Fanclub thepetfanclub.blogspot.com

This new initiative will further strengthen the current position for The Ring, Vienna´s Casual Luxury Hotel within the fashion industry. The next “fashion blogger lunch” is planned for January 2011.

That is why well known fashion labels currently change their strategy and are trying to increase their direct contact with the final consumer, no better way as to use specific fashion blogs and social media networks like Facebook or twitter or even distribute a new fashion line on the best online shops.

A few examples of online shops

www.theoutnet.com
Tthe ultimate site for chic discount shopping.

www.catwalkgenius.com
A great shop where you can buy ‘hard-to-find’ pieces from designer labels, one can even buy a share in a specific collection. Their blog is also interesting.

www.asos.com
Over 876 brands & labels.

A few labels also started to integrate their consumers via the web 2.0 by putting their fashion shootings or images on different sites. A good example is www.style.com, here you can see different videos on fashion shows, fashion moments, shootings and many more. Or take www.firstview.com where you can enjoy the world’s largest fashion database with more than 3 million fashion images, videos and more. A very good site is www.notjustalabel.com, if you are searching for a specific or upcoming label you will definitely find it here and it even contains a great shop!

Interesting is an approach done on Youtube: youtubefashion1.blogspot.com Here you can see all sorts of movies on fashion (shootings and shows). And if you are an upcoming label, take a look at www.showstudio.com, not only a useful site for the making of a fashion film but also excellent for distributing.

Interested how specific shops look like? www.newfashionlabels.com has a great ‘Shop Tour Video Session’, you can look at more than 20 different shops around the globe.

What about Facebook? How many labels do use Facebook to stay in touch with their consumers, distribute their new fashion lines and gain more ‘friends’? We took a quick look at which Austrian fashion designer has its own label on Facebook. Lena Hoschek has, on her page she shows different images of fashion shows where she did attend with her label, also Anna Aichinger, she mentions all possible events where you can see or buy her fashion. Gina Drewes has posted 23 image albums, and the label ‘Elfenkleid’ has some interesting links to partners, fashion weeks & events as well as some promotional activities. It seems that many fashion labels do use this social network to provide news, special promotions and images and also distribute their new collection after the official launching, although we did not check activities from fashion labels on Twitter.

Is it ‘hot’ to read fashion blogs? Yes definitely but it is not easy to find the best one as there are so many, it is also difficult to differentiate. The experts in the fashion industry most probably ‘connected’ themselves to the most popular ones to keep updated on what specific labels do and which new labels do enter the market. We looked at a few and what to share this with you:

IamFashion

Two ‘fashion darlings’ started this blog because they wanted to have a place where trends and fashion from the runway and on celebrities can easily be understood and translated into down to earth, youthful street fashion. They started late 2004 and this blog is full of nice articles and images.
iamfashion.blogspot.com

The Sartorialist

Done by star blogger Scott Schuhman, this blog was selected as one of Time Magazine’s TOP 100 design influencers. It offers postings since mid 2005, great images and is used by different labels for commercial issues.
thesartorialist.blogspot.com

Stylebubble

Done by ‘Susie Bubble’ from the UK, this is one of the trendsetting blogs within the fashion industry. She is not a fashion expert/insider – merely a fashion lover/consumer, and that is exactly what you can feel & see when reading her blog, full of unique daily fashion experiences.
stylebubble.typepad.com

A nice Austrian fashion blog is tschilp.com It tells you all about fashion trends and fashion experiences in Vienna.

A lot of fashion bloggers can be found on independentfashionbloggers.org It also cultivates a community for fashion bloggers to share their experiences and creates a resource so everyone can build a better blog. It also provides news about fashion shows, new fashion blogs and fashion blog conferences.

A pretty new initiative on ‘fashion 2.0’ I would like to share with you is www.garmz.com. You design and Garmz does the rest, pretty easy, they operate as a stage for designers to promote and present themselves and their work and get immediate feedback from a worldwide network of consumers and experts. They provide the handling of the complete production process at no costs and no risk. Also visit their blog to get a view behind the scene of Garmz. Since they started this platform beginning of 2010 they featured 7 ‘designer dates’. They also do organize the ‘Fashion Camp’ during the ‘MQ Vienna Fashion Week’ this year, I will be a wonderful gathering of interesting people, or a clash of cultures. The future of fashion, the change of communication, market and trend spreading. The Internet as the companion of new generations. Together with bloggers, fashionistas, photographers, designers, internet people, (online) shop operators, fashion designers and style hunters this will be nice social networking event all about fashion.

It seems that ‘fashion 2.0’ does not stop, or better to say that the web 2.0 does not stop the change process of fashion versus experts and consumers. After spending more than 24 hours on the internet, looking at more than 200 sites (blogs, shops, Facebook) one can say that creativity within this industry combined with web 2.0 is nowadays at a very high level and speed and will become larger in the very near future. Welcome Fashion 2.0!

1. Who are you?

2. What do you like about what you do?
That I never get bored about my job and can meet many people, I am very curious, I like to write and speak to my guests both resident and prospect.

3. What don’t you like about what you do?
Tripadvisor.

4. Please tell us about your hotel and your aims with it?
Since its conception Ripa has strived to stand apart from the typical roman hotel.
The hotel has chosen to make a cultural and artistic statement, daring to use a modern minimalistic style in a classical city. Breathtaking in its simplicity, the hotel provides a lively and wellcoming atmosphere of functional luxury that is typically italian. The 170 rooms and suites are designed to optimise space, light and comfort.
Our meeting rooms on the first and ground floors are fully equipped with the latest facilities. The Suite is a 400 sqm of multifunctional space, designed for events up to 160 Seats, up to 250 pax standing / Privé up to 30 pax. With a unique location in the heart of historic Trastevere in Rome.

5. Are you working with blogs and if yes, what is your favourite blog?
No.

6. Your TOP 3 hotel experiences
Former Es Hotel Rom now Radisson Blu
Sanderson Hotel London
Hotel Armentarola S. Cassino (Bz) Italy

7. Your TOP 3 destination experiences
S.Cassiano (Bz) Italy
Isle of Djerba
Maldives
Isle of Phuket (Thailand)

8. Your TOP 3 food and/or beverage experiences food
Ristorante DaIsolina in Canino-Viterbo(Italy); for the ambience
Inn the Park London, food and beverage
La Pergola in Rome (Italy)

9. Can you offer possible readers 3 things they absolutely need to do/visit/see when visiting your city?
Sunset At Fontana Paolina in Gianicolo, Visit St.Ivo alla Sapienza baroque Church, Via Del Governo Vecchio for fashion shops. Rome is a vast 3000 year old indoor-outdoor museum where you can find ancient monuments, art treasures and architecture in churches, galleries and protected ruins. All within easy reach of the hotel. Alternatively Rome offers design, green parks, cultural festivals, street cafes and shopping to enjoy.

10. Any comments you want to share with us?
Life is wonderful if everyone thinks and behave positve there would be no war in the planet!
I chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

The idea behind the premium car brand Infiniti was to create an entirely different kind of car for an entirely different kind of driver, and this idea is proven to be successful. They looked deeply into the rich Japanese heritage, especially the Japanese aesthetic known as ‘Adeyaka’, a concept containing the notions of grace and vibrant sensuality, and combined it with modern, progressive luxury. They call this design philosophy ‘Vibrant Design’.

Infiniti is a Japanese premium car brand, existing in the US by more than 20 years, producing powerful limousines, coupés and crossover car models. The 1^st Infiniti Centre was opened on October 1^st, 2008 in Paris, followed by centres in Madrid, Amsterdam, Prague, Istanbul and many other cities, now Infiniti is presented at 35 centres in total.

On June 28^th, Infiniti entered the Austrian market by presenting the overall philosophy, the brand and the different ‘beauties’ at a press conference held at The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel. The brand Infiniti will be represented by the well known and successful car company ‘Spes Automobile’ in Graz and the new ‘Infiniti Centre Austria’ will be opened  officially in the 1^st quarter of 2011 in Brunn am Gebirge.

Until the opening, future ‘Infiniti-rebels’ can enjoy the luxury of a hotel together with the luxury of a car @ The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel. Besides a nicely decorated corner in the lobby and an official ‘Infiniti-Lounge’ as of September 2010, interested parties can also look & feel cars like the Infiniti G37 Sedan, G37 Coupé, EX, the wonderful FX and pretty soon the new M…sorry…not only look & feel but also drive.

Besides that, The Ring, Vienna’s Casual Luxury Hotel will develop the 1^st ‘Enjoy Infiniti @ The Ring Package’ as of September 2010, again a new approach that supports 2 premium brands.

More information on this, I would say ‘more-than-premium-car brand’ can be found on the website www.infiniti.com, press materials and images on www.infinitipress.eu or by contacting Ms. Michaela Potisk (michaela.potisk@infinitipress.at) for PR matters or the newly appointed centre manager for Austria, Mr. Karl Frittum (karl.frittum@infiniti-wien.at) for test drives.

Enjoy life, enjoy The Ring, enjoy Infiniti!