Dr. Karin Sawetz

Karin Sawetz is the publisher and editor of Fashion.at, an independent Vienna-based online magazine that connects fashion with culture, politics, design, art, music and everyday life, with a particular focus on Austrian and European contexts. Fashion.at reports in English for an international audience and develops its topics and formats autonomously; the magazine is not financed by Austrian institutions or companies, which secures its editorial independence.

Current work on Fashion.at

Today, Karin Sawetz curates Fashion.at as a continuously updated digital magazine that follows how fashion interacts with social developments, urban life and media trends. The site features reports, commentaries and curated tips that link clothing and style to issues such as social matters, sustainability, technology and changing consumer habits. In addition to articles, she develops interactive formats like quizzes that explore fashion history, social changes, design movements and topics like ball culture as part of a broader cultural education approach.

Editorial focus and themes

The magazine's editorial spectrum ranges from Austrian fashion events, traditions and local design initiatives to global fashion phenomena, music videos, film, sport and digital culture. Coverage connects fashion with topics such as social traditions, housing and luxury, culinary culture, market and retail structures, and environmental debates around sustainable textiles. Fashion.at also regularly highlights intersections of fashion with art and performance, for example museum exhibitions, artist collaborations, and sports aesthetics, as well as music tips that reflect on self-image, empowerment and pop-cultural style codes.

Intercultural and research-driven approach

From its origins in the mid-1990s, Fashion.at has been conceived by Karin Sawetz as a platform that approaches fashion interculturally and analytically, grounded in media and communication research and early work on fashion in computer networks. This research perspective continues in current coverage, which often embeds fashion topics in wider debates on public opinion, digital platforms, city branding and the everyday practices of people in Vienna and beyond. Through this combination of journalism, cultural analysis and long-term observation of online media, Fashion.at positions fashion as a mirror and catalyst of social change rather than a purely commercial trend topic.

Background of the publisher

Karin Sawetz is a journalist, media researcher and fashion scholar (Mag. Dr. phil.) with academic training in journalism and communication sciences, theatre/film/media studies, philosophy and art education, complemented by vocational education in fashion and clothing technology. Her earlier professional stations include teaching in higher education and adult education in the fields of online market research, new media marketing and content management, as well as work as designer, costume designer and subject specialist for the fashion and textile industry. Her publications range from semiotic analyses of fashion and beauty ideals to studies on online media and the influence of digital information on reality construction, which inform the reflective, research-oriented approach of Fashion.at today.