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Operating from 1898–1958, Chic Parisien / Bachwitz AG was one of the Bachwitz family’s most renowned publishing ventures to operate out of Vienna’s Palais des Beaux Arts. Founded by Arnold Bachwitz and largely run by him, his wife Rosine, and their daughters, the company was dismantled following Austria’s annexation into the German Third Reich in 1938. Subject to the Nuremberg Race Laws, the publishing house was Aryanized: the family was removed from the board and their publishing rights revoked. After the war, the German Labor Front remained the publishing house’s main shareholder until the company became property of the Republic of Austria, existing only on paper until its dissolution in 1958.

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Published quarterly and distributed internationally, Chic Parisien promoted lifestyles and garments through hand-colored fashion illustrations collaging a global imaginary. Even after extensive research, it remains unclear whether the illustrations functioned as inspiration or whether the clothing could be made to order.

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“(…) Wet Baggage is an art project turned queer fashion magazine, commissioned by my friends at the Palais des Beaux Arts. It comes in a box (not a closet), and the box comes in a bag. The bag is very pretty and can be used for other things as well, like shopping or just looking good. This is not your typical magazine. It’s made from fabric. Its ‘pages’ are collages of fashion illustrations drawn from late 19th- and early 20th-century issues of Chic Parisien. Back then, photography was still in its early stages and very expensive, so magazines presented the latest fashions via illustration. Some of them are very famous today, if you know, you know.

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One edition of Chic Parisien focuses on lingerie. Women are illustrated in parlors and sitting rooms. They’re together in groups, in their underwear. Tell me this doesn’t sound extremely gay. Also, aren’t the turn of the century and the 1920s the gayest years in human history? I don’t know. To me, they seem deeply queer-coded. Like partying. Who does it best? The Queers. Money. Again, queer. Fashion. Queer. Art. SO gay. Voting. Gay. Women with short hair. Also gay. Speakeasies. Queer, because they were illegal. Oscar Wilde. Gay. Radio. Gay. Cars. Gay. Telephones. Gay. Gay gay gay gay gay. The list goes on, and I don’t care if you disagree. (…)”

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Existing outside of the commercial fashion realm, Wet Baggage documents Studio Hassan’s research into the designs of Chic Parisien while exploring how identity and alienation are expressed not only through the clothing we cover ourselves in, but also through the objects we choose to carry along with us.