Tailors who made for the court and the aristocracy, and billed their customers once per year.Ģ. ARTISANAL LIFE IN THE CITYĪccording to the highly recommendable book, Luxury from Vienna by Reinhard Engel (Czernin Verlag, 2001), three categories of tailors existed in Vienna during the 1880s up until the outbreak of WWI.ġ.
What about dress codes? Well, the combination of a very conservative monarchy and the dress requirements of the court with a multi-ethnic population, dealt a dress code concerned with representing the Empire well, with attention to quality and function.Īustrian men also leaned on sartorial inspirations popping up from Bohemia to Poland to Italy-with sportswear inspired by Austrian folk dress, spiked with the influence of Scottish and English cloth. Imagine the scope of this union, with 10 languages spoken in one place (including German, Hungarian, Italian, Czech and Polish).ĭuring this time, the metropolis felt quite modern (not unlike the European Union), but in other ways the city's mindset was old-fashioned and allergic to any sort of change. Although the Austrian Empire began in 1804, the constitutional union of Austria and Hungary didn't start until 63 years later, in 1867. To up the ante, Vienna was named the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire-a “dual monarchy” teaming the Austrian Empire with the Hungarian Kingdom.
If you’re from London or Paris, close to 2 million people may not sound extraordinary, but Vienna holds more than a fifth of the country's total population of 8.8 million. You may not know that the city of Vienna, Austria, holds a strong position in the world of European menswear with a vigor of artisanship which gives a wink to the French and Northern Italian style.Īs for the capital of the Republic of Austria, there are about 1.9 million people living in 23 districts in the city.