Award for International PR
Donated by the Vienna Chamber of Commerce and Industry
In recent years Vienna has developed more and more into a city of and for fashion. "Vienna's fashion scene is very diverse, creative and high-end, but it has yet to receive the international acclaim it deserves," says Brigitte Jank, President of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The increasing importance of the sector for Vienna as a hub of creativity is clear: the Viennese fashion and apparel sectors boast a total annual turnover of 1.3 billion and employ around 8,500. And two-thirds of all companies active in the fashion design sector have been founded since 2000.
Viennese
Fashion is Big in Tokyo
"In order to provide continuing support for this healthy development, we have put a variety of services at the disposal of designers," explains Jank. For one, the Internet platform CREATIVESPACE.AT makes it easy for fashion designers to enter into cooperation with traditional craftsmen and producers. Collaboration among fashion designers and partners can be virtual or real, as for example at the Fashion Coop Exchange, which will return again on 4 November 2010 to the MAK. Here, fashion designers can seek cooperation partners for their collections. WIEN PRODUCTS also offers lucrative possibilities for cooperation, such as for example the Japan Fashion Project which has enabled Viennese design trendsetters to gain a foothold in the fashion-conscious Japanese market. And at home in Austria, awareness for fashion has been heightened by cooperation such as Unit F büro für mode.
Positioning Vienna as a Fashion City
"With our initiatives and platforms we have responded to the urgent needs of Viennese fashion designers: they are now able to present their collections to a broad audience and put Vienna on display as an attractive city for fashion for the long term," says Jank. The Vienna Chamber of Commerce and Industry even organizes courses in business administration for the master classes at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and, with its Forum for One-Person Enterprises, makes both infrastructure and customized business intelligence available to entrepreneurs in the creative industries.