24 June 2023

Fashion & Technology Department of the University of Art and Design Linz, Upper Austria presented research in textile technology, biomaterials and social issues with a fashion show in Vienna

From sculptural works exploring individuality and diversity, sexuality and the body to a new technology for producing seamless and resource-efficient fashion, the range of student work covered not only the content of the Fashion & Technology Department's courses, but also the most exciting issues currently being discussed in fashion.

This week Fashion.at followed the invitation of the Fashion & Technology Department of the University of Art and Design Linz, Upper Austria, to the first fashion show in Vienna. The department was founded in 2015. Currently, around 80 students from about 20 countries attend the BA and MA courses in fashion design.
The show took place in the building of the Alte WU (old University of Economics and Business) in the 9th district. It was a hot day in Vienna and when the show started, the room was additionally heated up by an extremely intense light. But the heat, the lighting, and the sometimes lengthy choreography didn't dampen the excitement. The Linz-based Fashion & Technology Department is known for combining art and research - especially for breaking new ground in biomaterials and textile technology. But also social themes like individuality and diversity were presented with fashion creations such as an inflated long train of a dress that explored sexuality and the body. Short videos with statements on topics such as disability, aging, or queerness accompanied the runway show.
One of the highlights was the performance of nine students on the runway demonstrating the making of braided textiles. The students' work was also noticed by the Technisches Museum Wien, which recently posted images and a more detailed description of the seamless textile technology on Instagram. The presentation of new materials and dyeing methods using bacteria and plants developed in the department's Material Intervention Lab was visually accompanied by greatly magnified images on a large video screen, evoking the cooking of substances in Petri dishes.

Recently, the Fashion & Technology Department posted via Instagram photos of selected student pieces published by the daily newspaper Die Presse.

Image: Runway view of the fashion show of the Fashion & Technology Department of the University of Art and Design Linz on 22 June 2023 at the West Bibliothek, Alte WU at Augasse 2-6 in the 9th district of Vienna.