Alter és Kiss

Alter és Kiss was a leading fashion house in Central Europe which began in 1829 in Budapest, Hungary, producing tailor-made clothing for high society, including the Viennese royal family.

As reported by the Magyar Bazár in 1866:

“The whole country is familiar with their reputation. There is no doubt every woman... is familiar with the shop’s best characteristics... Generations before, women used to buy their endowment garments at the Alter és Kiss shop, and now, so do their grandchildren.”

According to Magyar Bazár, the first shop for Alter és Kiss was founded by Antal Alter in 1829. The shop was located on 10 (13 today), Vaci utca, one of Budapest’s most famous shopping streets.

The brand was revived in 2009 by Central Saint Martins graduates Gabor Fabricius and Mei Mei Ding, with the support of the Alter family.

History

The first shop

The building where the Alter és Kiss shop stood still stands today; it is notably the oldest house on Váci utca. The house was built by famous watchmaker Schondorfer Feren, with construction beginning in 1804 and lasting two years, and became known as the Schondorfer house. This classicist structure had since gone through several changes. Among them, the most substantial change was the reduction of windows of its façade facing Regiposta utca, where, the original 11 rows of windows were significantly reduced to only 2. The ground floor of the house, which served as retail space, also underwent numerous changes throughout the 19th and 20th century.