HELMUT LANG


Helmut Lang, a fashion autodidact, set up a made-to-measure fashion studio in Vienna in 1977 and opened a boutique there in 1979, at the age of 23. His clothes were fairly successful in his native Austria, and, after presenting his work as part of an exhibition titled "l'Apocalypse Joyeuse" at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, initiated by the Austrian government, he branched out successfully to Paris in 1986 and created the label "Helmut Lang".
At this time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, minimalist fashion was at its height. His clothes were made with very sharp lines and careful cuts, creating basic but extremely elegant silhouettes in high quality and often high-tech fabrics. He broke away from the runway show-as-spectacle in the height of the 1980s opulence and was the first to ever stream his collection online. As one of the most important designers of our times, his work left an undeniable imprint on contemporary culture and his influence continues to reverberate among the fashion community today.