Fashion figurine, 1919

This costume design was created by the interior architect, designer, set decorator, fashion designer and painter Eduard Josef Wimmer-Wisgrill (1882–1961) in connection with his work for the Wiener Werkstätte in 1919. The multi-talented artist studied from 1901 to 1907 at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts under Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956), Koloman Moser (1868–1918) and Alfred Roller (1864–1935). He subsequently started to work for the Wiener Werkstätte and for many years headed the institution’s fashion department. This pencil drawing with gouache, created using various shades of gray, shows a female figurine wearing an extremely tapered creation that seems to anticipate ladies’ fashion of the 1950s. Though Wimmer-Wisgrill was dubbed the “Poiret of Vienna”, he was responsible, before World War I, for shaping a specific Viennese style. For, in terms of fashion, the Wiener Werkstätte did not necessarily follow Parisian trends but consistently pursued its own visions.

MR, 2021