5 November 2021

Vienna Insights: The Austrian Fashion Awards 2021 went to Petar Petrov (outstanding artist award for experimental fashion design) and to Jojo Gronostay's art project and clothing brand DWMC (Fashion Prize of the City of Vienna)

The Austrian Fashion Awards funded by the Arts Section of the Austrian Federal Chancellery and the Cultural Department of the City of Vienna were mentioned on Fashion.at several times through the last years. The awards-organising 'Austrian Fashion Association' was established by Camille Boyer and Marlene Agreiter in 2013, the first awards were handed out in 2014 . On 3rd November 2021 it was the first time that Fashion.at visited the annual award ceremony. The event was a mix of informal come-together in a bar and party location at the Belvedere 21, which is known as an exhibition space for contemporary art, and a formal ceremony continued with a presentation of fashion collections by models whose acting might have reminded guests Marina Abramovic-like performances of standing or sitting still without emotion, no matter which grimaces are made by visitors.

Images: On view at the large hall of Belvedere 21 were the works by this year's funded designers (listing at the Funding Database on austrianfashionassociation.at) inclusively the winners of the two awards, Petar Petrov, who received the 'outstanding artist award for experimental fashion design' by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport, and DWMC (Dead White Men's Clothes), the winner of the Fashion Prize of the City of Vienna (Modepreis der Stadt Wien).

Presenter of the award ceremony was actress Miriam Hie who starred recently in the latest episodes of the internationally acclaimed Austrian TV-series 'Vienna Blood' in the role of an archivist. In her role on the award stage, Miriam Hie introduced the winners starting with DWMC and information about the designers' work like the meaning behind the saying 'Dead White Men's Clothes'.
Image, video (from left): The picture and video shows Veronica Kaup-Hasler, Vienna City Councilor for Culture and Science, Jojo Gronostay, founder of the art project and clothing brand DWMC (Dead White Men's Clothes, deadwhitemensclothes.com/about/) and presenter Miriam Hie who explains the meaning of the phrase which comes from the translation of the Ghanaian term 'Obroni Wawu' denoting second-hand clothes from the West brought to Africa. The term was explained with reference to the Kantamanto market in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. The market is known as large marketplace for second hand products and origin of the phrase. 'Obroni Wawu' was formed in the 70s. The second hand clothes arrived in such a good quality that the people thought the former owner must have died without the chance to wear the pieces for a longer time. DWMC makes at the first sight aware of excessive consumption. A closer view at the work of the brand shows the artistic-scientific approach of Jojo Gronostay (studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris) for exploring identity and the fashion system by questioning the universal power of fashion as language and for identity formation.




Winner of the 'outstanding artist award für experimentelles Modedesign' of the Art, Culture Ministry is Petar Petrov. The fashion designer studied at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Petrov is one of Austria's most important designers and internationally recognized for his work. Among the famous clients (petarpetrov.com/explore/about-the-brand/), names of actresses like Kristen Stewart or Emily Blunt can be found. The film for the Petar Petrov Spring/Summer 2022 collection (filmed in Vienna by Jork Weismann) was shown at the cinema of Belvedere 21.

Images, from right: The pictures show Olga Okunev, Head of the Department for Fashion, Design, Photography,... of the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport, and presenter Miriam Hie at the stage handing out the 'outstanding artist award for experimental fashion design' to Petar Petrov.