There's always something new happening in Vienna--here is some notable buzz from the city's tourism board.
Rent Vienna's Fashions
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| Moiree, GON, Silk Tunic Dress, © Aslan Kudrnofsky |
Guests staying at Viennese hotels can head out in the very latest collections from top local fashion designers – at rental prices.
The new rental service, Moiree, offers guests staying in the Park Hyatt Vienna, The Guesthouse Vienna, and DO & CO Hotel Vienna and the Hotel Altstadt Vienna the chance to order outfits and accessories from Viennese designers when making their reservation, to wear as their own for the duration of their stay. (We hear other hotels will join the plan soon.)
Participating labels including Femme Maison, Bradaric Ohmae, GON, FLorian Jewelry, Klaus Mühlbauer and Ajla Ayidan. If ordered in advance, the clothes will be waiting for the guests in their room upon check-in. Even better: Visitors can order additional pieces during their stay for priority delivery to their room using the Moiree website. In the event of sizing discrepancies, a replacement garments will be sent at no extra charge.
Good to know: The service is currently restricted to ladies’ fashion. (Sorry, guys!) The rental fee amounts to around 15 percent of the purchase price per day. And if it's just too hard to send the outfit back, items can be purchased at any time.
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| © WienTourismus / MAXUM |
Vienna's Balls
Those who want have something a bit more classic in mind when they "go out dancing" will love Vienna's super-swank balls. Each year, more than 450 balls are hosted throughout the city for more than 2,000 hours of dance floor action. (Get those dance shoes reinforced.)
Although the ball calendar doesn’t officially get going until the new year, the season actually gets underway on November 11, the official start of the carnival season, when Vienna’s dance schools transform the old town into an open-air ball room. On November 21, the Vienna Red Cross Ball will be held inside City Hall, while at the turn of the year the former imperial residence of the Hofburg opens its doors for the Silvesterball.
By January, the Viennese ball season will be in full swing: the Confectioner’s Ball at the Hofburg (January 15, 2015) is immediately followed by the Flower Ball inside City Hall (January 16, 2015) which will be held under the banner of “150 Years of the Ringstrasse” this time round.
The Vienna Philharmonic Ball takes place on January 22, 2015. Vienna’s classic gay and lesbian ball, the Rainbow Ball at the Parkhotel Schönbrunn (January 31, 2015) precedes the Coffeehouse Owners’ Ball at the Hofburg (February 6, 2015). The biggest event of the season is the Opera Ball at the Vienna State Opera (February 12, 2015), after which some of the guests head to the Rose Ball at Palais Auersperg to see the night out. The Bonbon Ball at the Konzerthaus takes place the next night (February 13, 2015).
The Ringstrasse
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| Heldenplatz, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Museum of Natural History, © WienTourismus / Christian Stemper |
Vienna’s Ringstrasse will celebrate the 150th anniversary of its opening in 2015 with special exhibitions and guided tours.
From March 19, 2015 the Architekturzentrum Wien will focus on architecture during the Nazi era, which included plans for monumental public buildings along the Ringstrasse, redeveloping Heldenplatz and Rathausplatz as well as extending the Burgtheater. An exhibition at the Secession opens on the same day: A key work of Viennese art nouveau or Jugendstil, Joseph Maria Olbrich's Secession building was originally planned for the Ringstrasse before protests led to the choice of a less prominent plot on the Wienzeile.
The Ring's Jewish history is examined in a show at the Jewish Museum Vienna starting on March 25, 2015. Many Jewish companies and financiers commissioned Ringstrasse palaces, seeing themselves as patrons, and in doing so helped to boost the economy during the period which became known as the Gründerzeit.
An exhibition at the Vienna City Library at City Hall beginning on April 30, 2015 focuses on how the Viennese were prepared for the huge urban redevelopment project, as well as with the role of the media in the competition for the Ringstrasse construction work which took place in 1858. The workers who produced the materials for the Ringstrasse buildings are the subject of a show at Waschsalon in the Karl Marx Hof social housing development from May 21, 2015.
The Ringstrasse painters will be on show at the Belvedere from July 3, 2015. Starting with the work of the "artist prince" Hans Makart, visitors will then be treated to the triumphs of the young artist’s collective who gravitated around Gustav Klimt. The Kunsthistorisches and Natural History Museums, MuseumsQuartier and the Sigmund Freud Museum are among the cultural institutions which will put on special guided tours for the Ringstrasse anniversary year.