Christiane Gruber

Under the label name of Awareness & Consciousness, fashion designer Christiane Gruber creates gently flowing and sensual collections based on high-quality jersey materials.

 

Christiane Gruber completed her fashion degree under Raf Simons, Viktor & Rolf and Jean-Charles de Castelbajac at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. After receiving the Fashion Award of the Federal Austrian Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture in 2002 she gained international experience at Haider Ackermann and A.F.Vandevorst in Antwerp.

 

In spring 2005 she launched the label, Awareness & Consciousness. She has since presented her collections at Fashion Week in Paris.

Awareness & Consciousness symbolises a personal attitude towards life. Moreover, A&C also stands for Accessories & Clothing. During the first 4 seasons, the accessories were designed in close collaboration with fine artist Anneliese Schrenk.  

 

At the heart of every A&C collection is the material used, which is usually painstakingly handcrafted. In her last collection, for example, Gruber developed special tie-dying techniques inspired by Japanese Shibori and classic batik patterns. Every garment was tied by hand using a special method and then dyed and/or bleached. This technique produces singular patterns, making every piece unique. In spring 2007 the work of A&C was recognized with the Ringstrassen Award and in 2008 with the Fashion Award of the City of Vienna. In 2009 A & C won the Unit F Award for International PR at the 9 festival for fashion & photography.