12 Austrian Clothing Brands Worth Knowing (2026)
Austrian clothing brands stand out through precision and technical skill. This comes from a culture built on craftsmanship and engineering. Wolford, for example, turned simple hosiery into a luxury category through advanced knitting technology, while Steiner keeps alpine textile heritage alive through careful wool processing. Susanne Bisovsky takes a different path, creating conceptual fashion rooted in Vienna’s cultural history, proving a small market can build a strong identity as long as craft stays connected to real tradition.
Vienna sits between Eastern and Western Europe as a cultural capital, giving its ateliers access to both Habsburg-era court tailoring and the alpine textile traditions of the surrounding mountains, where demand for durable outdoor wear runs just as deep. Compared with Germany or Italy, Austria’s fashion identity leans harder on this dual heritage of craft and precision than on scale or trend-driven output.
12 Austrian Clothing Brands Overview
Here’s a quick look at the Austrian brands in this guide, from heritage names to contemporary designers.
- Wolford – Luxury hosiery pioneer founded in 1950, known for advanced knitting technology.
- Steiner – Traditional Loden maker since 1888, known for quality wool coats.
- Sportalm – Alpine sportswear brand from the 1960s, mixing mountain style with fashion.
- Tostmann – Vienna and Attersee Trachten house since 1949, known for handmade dirndls.
- Gössl – Alpine fashion specialist since 1956, known for refined design.
- Susanne Bisovsky – Conceptual designer blending Vienna’s history with theatrical fashion.
- Arthur Arbesser – Vienna/Milan designer known for graphic patterns and bold color.
- Marina Hoermanseder – Designer known for belts, hardware, and structured shapes.
- Lena Hoschek – Vintage-inspired brand founded in 2005, known for 1940s-50s style.
- Maison Hēroïne – Luxury bag brand with sharp, minimal Austrian design.
- Elfenkleid – Sustainable bridal and eveningwear brand using organic materials.
- Anukoo – Sustainable basics brand with organic fabrics and clear production.
Austrian Clothing Brands
Wolford
Location: Bregenz, Austria
Founded: 1950
Price level: luxury
Product type: hosiery and bodywear
Style: technical, sophisticated
Website: wolford.com
Instagram: @wolford
Wolford built Austria’s most recognized luxury clothing brand through fine hosiery. Founder Reinhold Wolff turned plain undergarments into a luxury category, using new knitting technology and his own yarns while treating hosiery as a true fashion category, not just underwear.
The brand still runs its own Austrian factories today. As a result, it keeps tight control over quality that outsourced production can’t match.
Steiner
Location: Vienna, Austria
Founded: 1888
Price level: high
Product type: Loden coats and alpine wear
Style: traditional, quality
Website: steiner1888.com
Instagram: @steiner.lodenmanufaktur
Steiner keeps traditional Austrian Loden heritage alive through quality wool coats. The brand uses real Loden fabric, a dense felted wool first made for alpine shepherds and hunters, and old techniques turn the wool into a tough, water-resistant material built for mountain weather.
This skill gives Steiner real credibility in the alpine wear space. In fact, that credibility shows in the quality of every coat.
Sportalm
Location: Kitzbühel, Austria
Founded: 1960s
Price level: high
Product type: alpine sportswear
Style: sporty, feminine
Website: sportalm.at
Instagram: @sportalm_kb
Sportalm makes alpine sportswear that mixes mountain culture with ski fashion. The brand started in Kitzbühel, Austria’s top ski resort, where skiers wanted stylish gear, not just technical outdoor wear.
That gap between sport and fashion created a whole new category. The clothes work well on the slopes, but they still look sharp for après-ski, which is why Sportalm appeals to people who value both performance and style.
Tostmann
Location: Vienna and Seewalchen am Attersee, Austria
Founded: 1949
Price level: high
Product type: Trachten and dirndls
Style: traditional, handmade
Website: tostmann.at
Instagram: @tostmanntrachten
Tostmann has made dirndls and Trachten in its own Austrian workshops since 1949. The family business still sews everything in Seewalchen am Attersee and Vienna, from everyday dirndls to festive costumes and made-to-measure wedding dresses.
That in-house production sets Tostmann apart from brands that outsource Trachten manufacturing. As a result, the label remains one of the most trusted names in authentic Austrian costume.
Gössl
Location: Austria
Founded: 1956
Price level: contemporary
Product type: alpine fashion
Style: traditional, contemporary
Website: goessl.com
Instagram: @goessl_offiziell
Gössl updates traditional Austrian alpine fashion with a modern touch. The brand borrows shapes, details, and fabrics from old Austrian costume, but it never turns into literal folk dress, which appeals to people who want to show Austrian style in clothes they’d actually wear.
Quality and craft stay high across both traditional and modern designs. That’s exactly what lets Gössl charge premium prices and keep customers loyal.
Susanne Bisovsky
Location: Vienna, Austria
Founded: 1990s
Price level: high
Product type: conceptual fashion
Style: theatrical, cultural
Website: bisovsky.com
Instagram: @susanne_bisovsky
Susanne Bisovsky creates conceptual fashion built on Vienna’s cultural history. Her theatrical pieces mix costume, art, and wearable clothing, drawing from Austrian baroque style, Viennese modernism, and folk traditions in a way that feels genuinely rooted in Austrian culture, not just borrowed from it.
Bisovsky shows her work at Vienna Fashion Week. There, she draws fans who want fashion with real artistic depth.
Arthur Arbesser
Location: Vienna/Milan, Austria
Founded: 2012
Price level: high
Product type: contemporary fashion
Style: graphic, playful
Website: arthurarbesser.com
Instagram: @arthurarbesser
Arthur Arbesser splits his time between Vienna and Milan. He builds modern fashion around graphic patterns and bold color blocking, having studied at Central Saint Martins and later worked at Prada.
That mix of training and Austrian design thinking gives his work a clear, distinct look. Today, Arbesser shows at Milan Fashion Week and sells in luxury stores worldwide.
Marina Hoermanseder
Location: Berlin, Germany (Austrian-born designer)
Founded: 2013
Price level: high
Product type: structured fashion
Style: sculptural, hardware
Website: marinahoermanseder.com
Instagram: @marinahoermanseder
Marina Hoermanseder built a clear design identity around belts and hardware. She uses metal hardware, buckled belts, and industrial fastenings as design pieces, never just decoration, so the hardware defines the shape of each garment.
This sharp, consistent language shows how Austrian precision can shape fashion, even from her Berlin studio. Hoermanseder shows at fashion weeks and dresses well-known names, proof that a clear signature style can carry a whole brand.
Lena Hoschek
Location: Graz, Austria
Founded: 2005
Price level: high
Product type: vintage-inspired fashion
Style: feminine, retro
Website: lenahoschek.com
Instagram: @lenahoschek
Lena Hoschek celebrates 1940s and 1950s style through modern Austrian craft. She makes full skirts, nipped waists, and retro prints, but builds them with real Austrian attention to fit and construction, never just surface-level vintage styling.
This mix of nostalgic design and modern quality built her an international following. Hoschek shows at fashion weeks and runs stores across German-speaking markets.
Maison Hēroïne
Location: Berlin, Germany
Founded: 2016
Price level: high
Product type: luxury bags
Style: refined, minimalist
Website: maisonheroine.com
Instagram: @maisonheroine
Maison Hēroïne makes luxury handbags with sharp minimalist design and quality materials, popular with Austrian and German shoppers alike. The brand only makes bags, and that single focus builds real depth in leather work and construction.
Every bag shows careful material choice and clean, refined detail. That’s exactly what earns the brand a spot in the German-speaking luxury market.
Elfenkleid
Location: Vienna, Austria
Founded: 2012
Price level: contemporary
Product type: sustainable bridal wear
Style: romantic, ethical
Website: elfenkleid.com
Instagram: @elfenkleid_official
Elfenkleid makes sustainable bridal and eveningwear from organic materials, a bold move in a category usually tied to old-school luxury. The brand uses GOTS-certified organic fabric, natural dyes, and clear Austrian production.
Wedding dresses and formal wear rarely get this kind of ethical treatment. Elfenkleid proves that sustainable fashion can still feel romantic and beautiful, not just responsible.
Anukoo
Location: Vienna, Austria
Founded: 2011
Price level: contemporary
Product type: sustainable basics
Style: minimalist, ethical
Website: anukoo.com
Instagram: @anukoofairfashion
Anukoo makes sustainable wardrobe basics from organic materials, showing that green values can shape everyday clothing too, not just luxury pieces. It focuses on the essentials: t-shirts, sweaters, and simple basics.
Every piece is made ethically, yet it stays priced within reach. That’s what builds real customer loyalty, not just marketing claims about sustainability.
Other Notable Austrian Clothing Brands
- Hartmann – Heritage hunting and outdoor wear specialist with traditional Austrian tailoring.
- Wendy & Jim – Contemporary Vienna womenswear label known for clean, minimal design.
- Schmidttakahashi – Avant-garde Vienna label known for bold, unusual shapes.
- Meindl – Alpine footwear specialist known for quality hiking boots.
- Backhausen – Historic textile maker since 1849, known for quality Viennese fabrics.
- Wald – Sustainable outdoor brand using recycled materials.
- Salzburger Trachten – Traditional costume house preserving Salzburg’s regional dress style.
Frequently Asked Questions about Austrian Clothing Brands
Wolford is Austria’s most internationally recognised fashion brand, known for its luxury hosiery and advanced knitting technology. It remains one of the few global luxury names to come out of Austria.
Austria’s mountain regions created a long tradition of durable, weather-resistant wool textiles. Brands like Steiner still produce Loden, a dense felted wool first developed for alpine shepherds and hunters.
Yes. Elfenkleid and Anukoo are two strong examples, both built around organic materials and transparent, ethical production in Vienna.
Austrian fashion leans more on Vienna’s court tailoring tradition and conceptual, artistic design, seen in labels like Susanne Bisovsky and Arthur Arbesser, while German fashion tends to favour a more minimal, commercial approach.
