Every January 1, the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert brings a sense of renewal and grandeur to audiences across the world. In 2026, that timeless tradition takes on a fresh resonance through a reunion between Albert Kriemler, creative director of Akris, and celebrated choreographer John Neumeier. Twenty years after their first collaboration for the 2006 New Year’s Concert Ballet, the two visionaries reunite to create a performance that celebrates Johann Strauss II, set to Roses from the South and The Diplomats’ Polka. Broadcast from Vienna to more than 90 countries and viewed by 50 million people, the production reimagines the meeting point of fashion, dance, and emotion.
For more than two decades, Kriemler and Neumeier have shared a devotion to clarity, movement, and innovation—a dialogue between choreographer and designer rooted in mutual respect. Known for his architectural precision and technical mastery, Kriemler’s work for Akris has always centered on the human body in motion. Whether crafting a double-face wool coat or a pleated silk gown, he approaches design as an extension of the wearer’s movement, a continuation of the line of the body.
Design as an Extension of the Body at Akris
Courtesy of Akris.
Courtesy of Akris.
In ballet, that philosophy reaches its purest form. As Kriemler often notes, clothing must serve the person who wears it, allowing individuality and performance to coexist. In this year’s Vienna State Ballet interludes, that principle comes vividly alive. His gowns and suits are less costume than real garments built for grace, crafted with the same attention to form, lightness, and precision that define Akris’s ready-to-wear collections. Like Norma Kamali’s collaborations with Twyla Tharp or Rei Kawakubo’s partnership with Merce Cunningham, Kriemler’s dialogue with Neumeier joins a lineage of designers who see choreography as an extension of design—a stage where fabric and form transcend fashion itself.
For Roses from the South, filmed at the MAK – Museum of Applied Arts, Kriemler interprets Strauss’s melody as an ode to lyricism and light. Flowing silk georgette and sleek silhouettes seem to float with each turn, the fabric itself waltzing through the air. Pleated panels and subtle side slits give the dancers freedom to move as if the garments were breathing with them. The luminous Baccara Rose gown worn by First Soloist Ketevan Papava anchors the sequence in color and emotion, framed by the male dancers’ velvet jackets in deep emerald, petrol, and bottle green—a palette inspired by the lush “South” conjured in Strauss’s composition.
By contrast, the brisk Diplomats’ Polka, set within the Hofburg Palace, transforms bureaucratic tempo into sartorial rhythm. Crafted from Akris’s signature double-face wool and paired with stretch-jersey tops, the suits embody energy and precision. Shades of pink, crimson, taupe, sand, blush, and ecru shift between restraint and exuberance, mirroring Strauss’s wit and playfulness.
Humanism on Stage in Vienna
Courtesy of the Vienna Philharmonic and Akris. Photography by Thomas Jantzen.
For Kriemler, the connection to ballet goes deeper than the mechanics of movement. He is captivated by the emotional architecture of performance—the invisible motivations and inner worlds that animate each dancer. “I believe this is also what connects John and me: his desire to perceive not merely dancers on stage, but individuals who happen to be dancing, and my aspiration to see them in real clothes rather than costumes,” he said. “There is more to dancing beyond mere technique and classical discipline.”
This shared humanism gives their work an uncommon intimacy. Neumeier’s choreography and Kriemler’s design each insist on authenticity—the dancer as a person, the garment as a second skin. As Neumeier said, “Albert’s deep understanding of tailoring and his ability to merge timeless elegance with modern relevance make him an exceptional creative partner. Our collaboration is built on mutual respect and a shared vision—to let design and movement speak as one.”
Their partnership has evolved across some of the most memorable productions of the past two decades: Verklungene Feste and Josephs Legende (2008), Turangalîla (2015), and Anna Karenina (2017), a co-production with the Hamburg Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, and National Ballet of Canada, for which Kriemler designed an entire wardrobe of quietly powerful garments. Later came Beethoven Project II (2021) and Epilogue (2024), the latter marking Neumeier’s poignant farewell to the Hamburg Ballet after 51 years as its director. Now, the 2026 New Year’s Concert Ballet stands as both a tribute to their creative endurance and a new chapter in their collaboration.
An Ephemeral Architecture of Performance
Courtesy of the Vienna Philharmonic and Akris. Photography by Thomas Jantzen.
Kriemler’s aesthetic—rooted in the clean geometry of Swiss design and the sensuality of movement—has long drawn inspiration from the visual arts. Across his career, he has collaborated with Geta Brătescu, Carmen Herrera, Imi Knoebel, and other artists whose work fuses clarity with emotional depth. Each partnership has expanded the language of Akris, blurring boundaries between fashion, art, and architecture.
In the same spirit, the Vienna collaboration situates fashion within the living architecture of performance. The MAK and the Hofburg—settings steeped in Viennese history—frame the dancers as part of a larger cultural continuum, where craftsmanship, music, and design merge seamlessly. The result is an ephemeral exhibition in motion, a moment of beauty that exists only in the fleeting intersection of body, sound, and fabric.
Courtesy of the Vienna Philharmonic and Akris. Photography by Thomas Jantzen.
The Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert is among the world’s most-watched classical performances, and this year’s edition, conducted for the first time by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, promises to make history. Yet beyond its spectacle, it offers a quiet meditation on endurance—on how collaboration, when founded on empathy and respect, can sustain creative evolution over decades.
For Kriemler and Neumeier, design and dance remain acts of devotion: to precision, to beauty, and to the living human form. In Vienna, as silk and music move together once more, the world witnesses not just a performance but the culmination of a rare artistic friendship—one that reminds us, in every turn and fold, that elegance lives in motion.
Courtesy of the Vienna Philharmonic and Akris. Photography by Thomas Jantzen.
