To awaken a spirit of optimism, liveliness and activity in every single person – that was the goal of the 23rd Life Ball, which makes reference to Vienna at the turn of the last century in order to highlight the strong-willed and creative types of that time who revolutionized society with their purposefulness and perpetually new joy of life.

“Breaking out of old ways and advancing one’s own individuality and self-determination”; this was the core idea of the Viennese Secessionists. The values of the avant-garde movement thus form a wonderful metaphor for the Life Ball, which has fought from its inception both for active steps towards health and for a conscious confrontation with and the overcoming of social barriers, taboos and stigmas,” as Gery Keszler, CEO of Life Ball, explained the choice of theme.
 

“Breaking out of old ways and advancing one’s own individuality and self-determination; this was the core idea of the Viennese Secessionists. The values of the avant-garde movement thus form a wonderful metaphor for the Life Ball, which has fought from its inception both for active steps towards health and for a conscious confrontation with and the overcoming of social barriers, taboos and stigmas,” as Gery Keszler, CEO and founder of Life Ball, explains the choice of theme. The Style Bible is produced annually and is inspiring the Life Ball-guests in choosing and creating their outfits according to the annual motto.

Life Ball Team starts working on the Style Bible long before it is produced. They get familiar with the theme from every perspective – from the artistical, the social, the historical as well as the musical – start creating and fabricating the costumes and fix the subjects they are going to shoot later on. The shooting itself takes about one week.
Counting all the people supporting the shooting -  like models, hair stylists, make-up artists, students from Viennese Fashion-school “Die Herbststraße” or the people responsible for the props or catering – there were a total of 130 “Life Ball-Angels”* working on this project.
* People supporting Life Ball and its aim voluntarily
 

The most difficult piece to shoot this year was “Death and Life” – one of the most popular artworks by Gustav Klimt. There were 10 models involved and on top of the group that represented “Life” there was Flora – a baby - just a few months old - together with her mother. The team had to face numerous challenges: each and every character had to be perfectly positioned, had to have the right facial expression. It had to happen quickly so Flora would not wake up and cry, the models were posing in very inconvenient positions, the makeup had to be refreshed frequently…thanks to Inge Prader and her motivating, spurring cheers everybody kept his good mood and sat out this challenging undertaking.
 

Next Life Ball will take place in 2017 – 2016 there will be the Red Ribbon Celebration Concert and the First Ladies Luncheon. Find out more: http://lifeball.org/en/life-ball/

See the opening show of Life Ball 2015: https://youtu.be/ku1uVnY-gc4
Source: Life Ball
 
http://www.lifeball.org