Helmut Lang is an Austrian fashion designer known around the world for his cerebral brand of minimalism made popular in the late 1980s. His creations are deconstructed and, more often than not, severe.
The Helmut Lang customer is best described as an urban, modern intellectual, and with the most disciplined of bodies. His clingy t-shirts elevated the tee to couture status and are infamously unforgiving. Originally, Lang studied business, but lucky for us, changed over to fashion and subsequently opened his first studio in 1977.
His designs were pretty successful in his native Austria, but the real recognition came when he branched out to Paris in 1986. It wasn’t until 1999 that he first showed at New York fashion week (rumor has it he moved to America for love).
And then in 2000, Lang was named CFDA Menswear Designer of the Year. Since the rise of minimalist fashion in the late 1980s to early 1990s, the movement has lost some of its popularity due to the rise of fashion powerhouses like John Galliano and Dolce and Gabbana, but the concept seems to have been reinvented for the Fall/Winter 2005-6 season. As for Lang, he never went out of style.
