Tina Elisabeth Reiter

The Sound of Homeless(ness)

‘This is my sixth year abroad now and I have had a moment when I started questioning my past, my cultural background and upbringing – in a way the collection is a holistic approach, a research into my own past that has led my designs and myself in a new direction.’

The Sound Of Homeless(ness) is the prize-winning collection by Austrian born and raised menswear designer, Tina Elisabeth Reiter. A recent graduate of the MA in Fashion Design & Technology: Menswear at London College of Fashion, Reiter leads a nomadic life commuting between Vienna, Munich, London and Berlin. Inspired by Reiter’s own feelings of displacement – as well the kitschy movies from the Austrian postwar years – her graduate collection grapples with personal questions of belonging and loss and re-examines what is the meaning of homelessness in our globalised world. Reaching back to her own roots in Austria, the beautiful Alps, organic colours, silhouettes and folk costumes, Reiter’s garments evoke a sense of nostalgia, reawakening the wish for an ideal world beyond our own.

Reiter’s graduate studies were accomplished in Munich at the Academy for Fashion and Design. While showcasing her diploma collection at London Graduate Fashion Week 2010, as part of the international show, she was invited to join the Master degree at London College of Fashion and was awarded one of the prestigious Harold Tillman scholarships.

In May 2012 Reiter received the highly remunerated Fashion Award from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, the Arts and Culture (BMUKK), as well as a START scholarship for fashion. She works with an international clientele, including Viennese it-boy Matteo Haitzmann and English musician Patrick Wolf, and is presently establishing artistic collaborations and developing fashion-oriented projects all over Europe. From January 2013 Reiter will be based in Berlin.

www.tinaelisabethreiter.com