Wiener Werkstätte Designers Fashion the Modern Woman

Modern young female designers in early 20^th century Vienna were electrified by the changes in art, design, and new opportunities for women and seized the opportunity to create wearable art, décor, and graphics that other contemporary women embraced in creating their own looks and statements. The exhibition Modernity and Opulence: Women of the Wiener Werkstätte tells their story at New York City’s Jewish Museum through November 15, 2026.

The show is a collaboration with Vienna’s MAK (Museum of Applied Arts). Take a look at some of our favorite pieces in our Flickr album.

1919 fashion photo by Franz Löwy of model in dress designed by Heddi Hirsch. Courtesy: Brandstaetter Images.

The exhibition puts the spotlight on some of the 200 women designers who created eye-popping fashion, cheeky ceramic works celebrating the “new woman, bold textiles to brighten wardrobes and interiors, retail experiences, and advertising promotions that screamed “modern style.”

1927 glazed earthenware figure by Vally Weiseltheir; heavy makeup and wild textile design pokes fun at the critiques of modern, fashionable 1920s women in Vienna.

1920 illustration of pajama in *Paleika* textile by designer Maria Likarz. Courtesy: MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna

The installation shows off the work of nearly 30 women designers who experimented across media throughout the thirty-year period (1903-1932) that the Wiener Werkstätte flourished, providing the pizzazz for it to become an internationally recognized, cutting-edge brand.

1925 photo of Vally Weiseltheir, Gudrun Baudisch, and Kitty Rix creating in the Wiener Werkstätte ceramics studio. Courtesy: Universität fur Angewandte (UAKS), Vienna.

These women’s stories and creations are presented within the context of women’s independence, social change, and design innovation happening as a war erupted, Austria’s empire collapsed, women won the right to vote, and money flowed in Vienna in the first quarter of the 20^th century.

The show begins by highlighting work by the progressive stars of the Vienna Secession movement – Josef Hoffmann, Kolman Moser, and Gustauve Klimt – design innovators whose geometric designs, truth-to-materials approach, and embellished surfaces inspired the women who pushed the aesthetic even further. Strong advocates that fine design and fine art should have equal standing, Hoffmann and Moser taught at Vienna’s School of Applied Arts, the only art school in Vienna that admited women.

1902 *Sacred Spring (Ver Sacrum* poster by Wiener Werkstätte founder Kolomon Moser for the Thirteenth Secessionist Exhibition. Courtesy: private collection.

Print of Klimt’s *Portrait of Emilie Flö*ge (painted 1902-1908) from the 1918 portfolio *The Work of Gustave Klimt.* Courtesy: Neue Galerie, New York.

When Hoffman and his collaborators began the experimental Wiener Werkstätte, they enthusiastically provided their female students with a pathway toward a paid profession in the arts. At the time, few opportunities outside the home existed for talented women. Like the Arts and Crafts and the Secessionist movements, the workshop’s guiding principle was to integrate innovative design into everyday life.

Geometric 1907 Josef Hoffmann necklace with pendant in non-precious materials like silver, malachite, and turquoise. Courtesy: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremburg

Heinrich Schröder’s 1907 *Portrait of Broncia Koller-Pinell* – an artist friend sporting a modern look – Hoffmann’s necklace with a loose, reform-style dress with a square neckline. Courtesy: private collection.

In the Wiener Werkstätte’s early years, many talented women designers moved into positions as fashion illustrators and designers. Picture postcards were all the rage, promoting products but also serving as collectible art in their own right. The fun designs were so popular that some allege postcard sales drove the revenue to support production of more upscale products in those years. In 1910, the textile department began, followed by the fashion department the next year.

Two 1912 fashion postcards by Maria Likarz and 1912 design by Fritzi Berger. Courtesy: Neue Galerie, New York.

1912 fashion postcards by Susi Singer. Courtesy: Neue Galerie, New York.

But when so many men left Vienna to serve in World War I in 1914, the number of women employed there soared. The female designers at the Wiener Werkstätte suddenly had keys to the workshops and the artisans at their disposal to create various lines of work. Although the war years were tough, the women found the work environment a kind of paradise – a golden professional opportunity.

Block print silk samples – 1922 *Neptune* by Mizi Friedman, 1916 *Danube* by Marianne Perlmutter, 1928 *Sinaia* and *Quartet* by Hilde Blumberger, 1910 *Alpine Peak* by Marianne Zels, and 1913 *Davos* by Felice Rix. Courtesy: MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna

Lotte Calm’s 1914-1915 expressionist hand-colored linocut from the *Vienna Fashion (Mode Weim)* portfolio to promote Viennese fashions from the workshop’s new textile and fashion department. Courtesy: MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna

During the war, the Workshop expanded into lace and opened retail shops with yard goods for home dressmakers, lampshades and pillows from the textiles, and colorful glassware. Like the success of the postcards, Wiener Werkstätte textiles were so in demand that the retail revenue kept the entire workshop afloat.

1918 glass and enamel vase by Vally Weiselthier and 1917 decorative glass by Fritzi Löw; both manufactured by Johann Oertel & Co. Courtesy: Wein Museum, Vienna.

In 1917, the Workshop created its ceramics studio with humorous earthenware toys and little images of everyday life. Over time, it became known for crazy ceramic ladies’ heads by Vally Weiseltheir embellished with wild make-up and avant-garde accessories – a satiric retort to conservative criticism of newly liberated women. Everything had a handmade, non-precious look.

Two lively 1928 glazed earthenware sculptures by Vally Weiseltheir, who ran the ceramics department; parody, satiric images of the modern woman. Courtesy: Galerie de ber Albertina-Zetter, Vienna

Take a walk through the exhibition with James Snyder, director of the Jewish Museum, to hear more about the show and to see additional works on view:

Revenue from fashion continued apace throughout the 1920s as hemlines shortened and women’s styles changed. Retail stores opened across Europe and even in New York, but the 1929 stock market crash and changing political climate in Europe gradually brought the experimental days of the Wiener Werkstätte to an end.