Global Trend Report '08 - Vienna

Austrian guys have finally jumped on the tight-jeans bandwagon. Better late than never, we guess. Plain-colored button-down shirts and V-neck t-shirts are also very narrow cut. Basically boys are looking like they raided their little sisters’ closets. They’re still doing the zany old-man hat thing, which will not die no matter how hard we try to kill it. And scarves. Oh, the scarves. What country can resist them?

Mostly, though, guys aren’t really stressing out too much over their wardrobes. They’re sticking with tried-and-true staples like “shirts” and “pants” and we’re A-OK with that.

Girls are also pleasantly low-key. They’re putting most of their energy into interesting colors. Look at how nicely two shades of purple and red go together. And the matching red fingernails, lipstick, and earrings are like little exclamation points at the end of this outfit’s sentence. Tight jeans are often seen in washed-out gray colors. Bags are chosen as the occasion demands—daytime favorites are long-stringed things made out of what appears to be sweatpants, and evening clutches should match your heels, especially in bright, zingy metallic colors.

Even for a night out, girls are keeping it mellow with loose and cozy fabrics, like an old favorite t-shirt with dolphins on it that she got on a family vacation and a shiny, sporty jacket cut short to show some ass. Again, keep the colors neutral, except for a few mini-explosions here and there. It is a Viennese portrait of restraint.

If you want to be girlier, you can wear one of those is-it-a-shirt-or-a-dress tunic things with, what else, a pair of dark tight jeans. It’s a slight evolution of style from 2007 to 2008: Leggings are now substituted for real pants, and knitted cardigans are getting shorter. Straight hair has bangs and curly hair is tousled and everything is right with the world.

Come to think of it, it is surprising that more girls aren’t wearing tights, as Austria is home to Wolford, the champion of tights. If you’re a girl, or just a tights enthusiast, for your sake we hope you already know about Wolford’s Matte Opaque 80 tights, which are the warmest, most indestructible, blackest of black tights ever made. They’re expensive, but we personally have two pairs that have lasted over a year already and survived multiple machine washings. Seriously, this is the most helpful bit of info you’re going to get from this whole issue.

Photos: Kurt Prinz; text: Iris Kern and David Bogner; models: Wolf, Robert, Maxi, Anja, Schirin, and Lisa