Helmut Lang is a New York–based luxury fashion brand created by Austrian fashion designer Helmut Lang in 1986 known for its distinctive minimalist style. The brand was acquired from its founder by fashion house Prada in 2004, and then by Fast Retailing in 2006.
Brand history
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.