Young adults with migration background and fashion

Fashion Talk made an interview on fashion with Bülent (Turkish background), Rocco (from Slovenia) und Sergej (German-Russian background) on their experiences with fashion in Vienna/Austria. The three young adults (all 18 years old) were asked to identify the differences between fashion items in their personal surrounding in Germany and those in Vienna/Austria. Fashion Talk partner Karin Drda-Kühn (KDK) from Association Culture and Work did the interview - and was surprised what the young men found out:

KDK: Was there anything different or special in fashion in Vienna? Did you see different or the same clothes as in Germany?

Bülent: Pretty the same, there were not many differences. It is the same as in Germany, you can clearly see at the clothes what the people are, as in Germany.

KDK: May be the differences are not in the clothes but with fashionable things like shoes, jewellery, scarves, hats?

Sergej: No, not really, all stuff which we know from Germany. May be some of the shops have other names but the stuff is the same. Especially from chains. We were at some chains and it is really the same which is somehow strange because this is another country.

KDK: So there was absolutely nothing new for you in fashion items?

Rocco: I could not see differences in the clothes, but there was this shop with the iPhone cases, this was really different, a shop full of cases in all colours and many different patterns, we made a picture from the shop window:

Sergej: I wonder what they are good for because they make the iPhone bigger in the pocket, but there were so many young people in the shop so we went in to have a closer look. Yes, they look good, Bülent bought one.

Bülent: Yes, I bought one, not so expensive, it makes the iPhone in a way special, I like it.

KDK: Was anything else exiting for you which had to do with fashion or fashion items?

Rocco: There was this advertisement at the metro station, which was really funny when I found out, first I did not understand it. It looked like Superman in cinema, but it meant something else…

Sergej: It has something to do with cleaning the roads, it is written that those who broom the streets are heros, this is how some guys explained it to us. It was so funny because first I thought this is an advertisement of a special group of people and that they can be identified by orange T-Shirts under their clothes.

Bülent: It’s really funny, a kind of garbage fashion, but you have to understand it.

Rocco: There was something else which we did not understand, this was this street lamp with a knitted wrapping:

Sergej: It was at a staircase to Mariahilferstraße. May be this is also a fashion item, but not for people but for street lamps. Who knows, at least a lot of people were watching it.

KDK: So in the end you found some examples of fashion which are different to what you know?

Bülent: Yes, in a way, but there was another thing, there were street musicians, not my style of music, but their outfit was cool, they wore blue boiler suits and helmets, very strange for musicians.

Sergej: This was cool, we wondered what it was good for and some guys who were listening said it’s just for getting visible and extraordinary. Good way to rise attraction, no doubt.

KDK: But getting better visible is something which has a lot to do with fashion, don’t you think so?

Rocco: Yes, of course, but may be not with boiler suits and helmets, but the guys were really cool with the music and the costumes, really.

(The interview was done and translated into English by Karin Drda-Kühn)