“Such later full length and fully frontal portraits as the ones of Baroness Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt and Friederike Maria Beer are essentially gorgeous fashion plates,” writes Whitford in Klimt (149). Klimt’s paintings and fashion are very closely related, and he was himself very interested in fashion. His lifelong friend Emilie Floge was a celebrated Viennese fashion designer, and Klimt himself designed at least several pieces. Their creations were loose-fitting dresses called “reformkleid” which freed women—and men like Klimt, who wore them—from the constricting clothes of the day. Klimt’s sitter’s often wore reformkleid for their portraits, and to great effect: “He wanted to characterise her through her dress, with the fabric and cut emphasizing the personality of the person whose portrait he was painting” (Volker 49). To do this he asked the sitters during his gold period to dress in flowing reformkleid that alludes to neoclassicism. The sitters during the Asian-inspired period wore slim fitting dresses with hooped skirts that are meant to look like trousers, in shades of white and pastels that Klimt always favored. These pale colors were not always in vogue at the time (44). But Klimt’s savvy fashion sense works to bring out the sitter amidst a background of almost dizzying array of colors.
“Portrait of Emilie Floge” (1902)
She is wearing her own design.
Klimt’s clients had, of course, a very discriminating fashion taste themselves as well. Most were Jewish haute-bourgeoisie who had no financial restraints when it came to art, luxury, and the latest fashions from Paris and London. Others chose tasteful Viennese reformkleid dresses by the house of Floge, which took its cues from geometric patterns, proto-art-deco elegance and neoclassical silhouette (Volker 48). The broad, jewel-encrusted chockers were all the rage; Adele Bloch-Bauer wears hers in both of her portraits and also Judith I and II (44). The fabric from which the dress was made had to be a Wiener Werkstatte: Friederike Beer famously only wore Wiener Werkstatte fabrics, and boasted that she was a walking advertisement for them. 
A bit of fashion drama ensued following her successful offer of commission to Klimt: she didn’t know what to wear! Klimt first asked her to try on a number of Chinese and Japanese dresses he had in his collection, but none felt perfect. Exasperated, Friederike finally suggested that she wear her Wiener Werkstatte dress and a new polecat jacket (Natter 136). Both the dress and the jacket were made of Marina fabric designed by Dagobert Peche; but Klimt saw the beautiful red lining of the jacket, made of Flora designed by Leo Blonder, and decided that Friederike should wear it inside out. He also painted the polecat fur gray although it was actually white, because he thought that “it would look better” (Volker 48). In the painting the jacket ended up looking like a nomadic caftan and the dress more like a pair of pants; the outfit feels both modern and Asian, and perfect for the exotic portrait. Most importantly, the boldness of pattern and silhouette characterizes the youthful audacity of Friederike. Her outfit exemplifies the suitable pairing of fashion and the wearer which is precisely what Klimt intended.