Israeli husband-wife design team, Frau Blau, have joined the mile-high club. After the first ever runway show on an airplane, they have gone where no design team has gone before them: the mile-high-fashion-show-club that is.
“I know its crazy, but that’s why we wanted to do it,” said Philip Blaunstein, half of the Frau Blau design team. He and his wife and co-designer, Helena, were ecstatic to be a part of this milestone in fashion history.
The show was a project inspired by the introduction of a new low-fare airline, Wizz Air. The event was created as a collaboration between Frau Blau and the new airline which has begun four weekly flights between Budapest and Tel Aviv this week.
The runway show in the sky consisted of five models, and very simple outfits, said Blaunstein. With very limited changing space (ie airplane restroom), the outfit changes needed to be quick and simple. He also created a personalized rendition of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, with a slow drumbeat, to give the models sufficient time to walk down the short airplane isle.
Wizz Air is about being youthful, innovative and sexy. The intention of the “mile-high fashion show” is to convey the airline’s “vibrant and innovative brand,” said Daniel de Carvalho, Wizz Air’s corporate communications manager.
“We are not targeting fat-cats. We are providing cheap flights for entrepreneurs; people that are trying to build something,” said Carvalho. Now operating in 29 countries, the airline hopes that flying will no longer be considered a luxury, but a commodity.”
The collection that was presented on the flight was a taste of this year’s collection, the main idea being to show the world what Frau Blau is. That is why they didn’t show their 2013 collection, but rather, their ‘greatest-hits,’ and pieces they are most proud of. The Show included a knit wool skirt that Helena has designed as part of her final project at Shenkar College of Design shortly after she met Philip. “Next year’s collection?” teased Philip. “Ferocious fox: a Russian winter.”
“Fashion is an international language,” explained Ofir Lev, the general manager of the fashion and textile association of Israel. After promoting International designers at Tel Aviv fashion week last month, Lev was ecstatic about connecting the fashion worlds of Israel and Hungary. “Hopefully after Frau Blau visits Budapest, we will bring Hungarian designers to Israel. We are connecting innovation and fashion.”
After 15 years of love and teamwork, Philip and Helena Blaunstein hope that this will help them become one of the most important brands of today’s fashion world.
The name of the brand Frau Blau means “drunken woman” in German. “Our brand is about being happy and living life to the fullest extreme, just like a drunk old woman,” said Helena Blaunstein, the female half of Frau Blau. “Fashion is a good reason to make people happy.”
One thing is for sure: there is nothing more extreme than a fashion show on an airplane.