Helmut Lang

The Helmut Lang fashion brand was created by Austrian fashion designer Helmut Lang (born 1956) in 1986. The Helmut Lang brand still exists today, but has been carried on without Lang's involvement since 2005. 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. His work has been compared to Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto for his sometimes austere, intellectual designs. Lang is known for his minimalist, deconstructivist, and often severe designs. His fashion house became famous in the late 1980s for its simple but refined designs, its slim suits in black or white, its denim collection, and the use of high-tech fabrics. Helmut Lang fashions were sold in upscale department stores and through select retailers, as well as in signature Helmut Lang stores around the world. In 1999, Lang entered into a partnership with Prada Group which resulted in the acquisition of the Helmut Lang brand by Prada in 2004