studied architecture in Vienna and, from 1996 – 2001 worked as an architect, at the offices of Peter Eisenman, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien New York and later in Frankfurt with Albert Speer. She has written two children's books on Henri Matisse and Yves Klein and has been living in Frankfurt am Main with her husband and three children since 2001.

She made her first item of clothing, a bikini cut from Dirndl fabric at the age of 13 using her mother's sewing machine. She has been familiar with the fabrics from her collection since her earliest childhood – from the farms in the neighborhood: she used to spend her weekends and summers in the Mühlviertel region of Upper Austria.