Exhibition in Linz

Nina Hollein: “It’s like coming home for me”

From New York to Austria: Nina and Max Hollein visit the Schlossmuseum in Linz

(Bild: Horst Einöder/Flashpictures)

Nina Hollein is a fashion designer in New York. Having grown up in Linz, she is returning to the city of her childhood for her first museum exhibition. She is showing haute couture at the Schlossmuseum under the title "Homecoming": unique dresses from her collections, some made from vintage suits or Mühlviertel linen.

"It really is a homecoming for me," says Nina Hollein in the "Krone" talk. "I'm coming back to Linz, the city of my past." This is also where it all began. "My first fashion piece was a bikini made from dirndl fabric that I wore in the Parkbad."

Hollein was born in Vienna and spent her youth in Linz. She then left the "steel city", studied architecture and worked in well-known offices. She moved with her husband Max Hollein, now Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to Frankfurt and then to New York.

World fashion with Mühlviertel roots
Nina Hollein switched to fashion 15 years ago, founded her own label and continues to use fabrics from Haslach weaving mills to this day: "I turn useful fabrics into fashion. The Americans are wide-eyed, they love the tactile quality and the fact that these fabrics have a history." Whether evening dress or top - Hollein also brings in upcycling, using discarded anoraks or vintage suits to create unique pieces: "Everything is handmade."

(Bild: Katharina Gossow/Schlossmuseum Linz)

(Bild: Einöder Horst/Horst Einöder/Flashpictures)

Architecture and delicate body shells
The diagonal plays a key role in the cuts, creating dynamism and unity at the same time. There is a sense of architecture, while at the same time clothing can be experienced as a shell over the body. Haute couture also radiates eroticism - how important is that? "It's always important, the female body is the most beautiful thing you can cover up with clothes." She herself wears almost exclusively self-tailored clothes. "We go to a lot of receptions, dinners and cocktails, you need good clothes. I'm glad that I make my own fashion."

Emancipation from the "Frankfurt kitchen " 
The magnificent "Homecoming" exhibition at the Schlossmuseum in Linz reflects the entire spectrum of Hollein's work - from her first dresses made from tea towels to costumes made from recycled suits and sculptural, sometimes transparent evening dresses.

Hollein has also designed wallpaper for her exhibition at the Schlossmuseum in Linz (until October 23), revealing references - from Schütte-Lihotzky's "Frankfurt Kitchen" to film sequences in New York.