World Champion Austria Salzburg
These manufacturers are not pulling the wool over your eyes Austria’s knitwear and loden producers combine tradition with chic and innovative ideas for international success.
Fine fabric for many different clothes In times past the production of loden, a highly robust wool fabric, was widespread in the Alpine region but today only a handful of producers remain. The oldest is Lodenwalker in Ramsau am Dachstein, which was first mentioned in a document in the year 1434. The fundamental production process, i.e. felting wool fabrics with water, heat and mechanical pressure, has hardly changed since then. Only, in the 19th century machines started to replace manual labour and in addition to domestic sheep more and more fine Merino wool is used these days. The fabric itself has changed, however: It is now soft and fine and no longer hard and itchy like it used to be. That means that loden is now used for much more than rustic loden coats. The many uses of loden can be seen in Mandling, not even 20 kilometres from Ramsau, where Steiner1888 is located. The manufacturer was founded by members of the Steiner family, which has been operating Lodenwalker since the early 19th century. The company offers a regional version of a typical loden jacket, called the Schladminger, but the range of products is now dominated by a timelessly chic urban style with sports jackets, blazer coats, capes, parkas, sheath dresses, skirts and cargo
pants. “We wanted to combine international flair with tradition in our designs, resulting in a renewal of our brand through our products,” explains Johannes Steiner about the company’s strategy. He and his cousin Herbert are already the fifth generation of the Steiner family to run the business, and have come up with innovations in fabric production and workmanship. The latest innovation is a particularly light and elastic loden fabric, which was used for the first time in this year’s FS Collection. “The new collection from stretch loden has been very well received. We received a lot of positive feedback directly from our customers at the shops in Mandling and Schladming. We will continue using a lot of stretch loden as the material is very multifunctional,” Steiner says.
© Lupi Spuma
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hen people think of Austrian fashion, the first thing that comes to mind is traditional costumes and indeed, items like dirndls and lederhosen are part of Austria’s cultural identity that is held high by traditional brands such as Gössl, Habsburg, Mothwurf and Sportalm. Designer Lena Hoschek also gives traditional costumes a lot of room in her collections. She recently created Austria’s first official huntress jacket in cooperation with the Bavarian traditional costumes label Meindl and the Austrian Hunters Association. And the exclusive piece of clothing is made from Austrian loden, of course.
Huntress jacket from Austrian loden by Lena Hoschek and Meindl
