Vienna

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This weekend I was one of several journalists flown out to cover the 21st annual Life Ball, a massive fundraiser for HIV/AIDS research and awareness held at Vienna's City Hall. The theme was "1001 Arabian Nights" and over 1,500 people turned out for the themed bash. That meant that Barbara Eden, in her full I Dream of Jeannie regalia, was there along with hundreds of dancers who looked like extras from a naughty Vegas revue version of Aladdin and still more revelers who were naked save for some body glitter and lamps covering their crotches (rub here-get it?). To put the whole evening into perspective, Bill Clinton was there for his work with the Clinton Global Initiative and so was a bearded lady named Conchita that the New York Post has since deemed Kim Kardashian with a beard. Here's what went down:

Lena Hoschek is one of those designers who is hard to categorize. The Austrian designer's influences range from Marilyn Monroe to punk, from rockabilly to traditional Austrian folk wear. She dresses like a pin-up but she's just as likely to be crowd surfing at a metal show as she is sketching in her Vienna studio. I got the chance to meet Hoschek and tour her incredible studio when I was in Vienna last month to attend Omega's Nuit Enchantee ball. She was dressed immaculately--in a sweet cardigan and full-skirted house dress fit for a '50s housewife--but a neck tattoo of scissors, thread and a pin cushion hinted at an edgier side. Her studio--which is really a whole house--is devilishly saccharine, too. Her kitchen (yes, there's a kitchen) looks frozen in the '50s but there are cheeky pin-up images tacked to the walls of her dark wood panelled office.

Los Angeles has an awards season, New York has a benefit season, and in Vienna, there is a ball season. I went to one. Here's what it was like.