Helmut Lang

Lang's color palettes largely consisted of blacks, whites, and neutrals, sometimes with contrasting stripes, blocks, or slashes of color.

make Veeky Forums great again

The AW 03 collection featured really cool runway only chainmail pieces, the influence of which can be seen in this shoot along with some of the pieces themselves.

Good thread op

Lang drew inspiration from industry, military, and aeronautics as seen in one of his most iconic designs based on g-suits (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-suit).

AW03 featured the aviator pants seen layered here on the legs as well as styled as sleeves.

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Lang used modern materials like ballistic nylon and metallic silver finishes to create a futuristic urban rocker look.

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Lang arguably provided the stepping stone for Hedi Slimane's slim rocker look that dominated the industry in the 2000's.

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which brings us to Melanie Ward, Lang's long-time creative director

Ward's styling and ability to fuse subtle sexiness with militaristic utility came to define the label.

Here's a scanned interview from a 2009 issue of Fantastic Man.

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After his retirement, Lang donated a large selection of archival garments along with his entire graphic and corporate archive to MAK, the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts.

They maintain a fantastic digital archive of Lang pieces and commentary.

mak.at/en/mak_design_lab/helmut_lang_archive

helmutlang.mak.at/gallery.html

>tfw helmut lang grew up in the same district as you

So how exactly did helmut lang majorly influence fashion within the context of what was going on in fashion before / during / after his rise?

In 1998 Lang was the first designer to stream a fashion show online, a forward thinking move that embraced new technology and provided access to the previously close guarded insider fashion world.

vogue.com/13396473/from-the-archives-helmut-lang-technology/

This desire to democratize and equalize designers, industry players, and everyday people is further seen in his move from catwalk shows to walking his models on the same level as the audience. This setup has now become industry standard.

all the shit be made in china now. But the stuff from the 90s and 2000s was not and the designs were rather fire. I have a pair of the pants from 98 btw and want to get more soon

I'm getting to that.

The essentials are this:

The 1980's was a time of flash trends, gaudy over the top design, and prominent branding as epitomized by the flamboyant pop culture referencing designs of Jean Paul Gaultier.

Lang's target beginning in the late '80's was to strip away the flash and brand to create a cooler than thou look defined by precise tailoring, conspicuous lack of branding (whoa, who the fuck makes that jacket), and coy erotic details.

Lang used carefully placed slits, holes, and cutouts in his clothing to provide tantalizing glimpses of skin. He championed the idea that sexy need not be overt. Sophisticated clubwear reimagined in delicate sheer fabrics like the mohair sweater at left typify the charged atmosphere he created despite the minimalistic designs.

The influence of his minimalist no branding look is seen everywhere in fashion these days. He steered the big houses away from the overt advertising they were falling into in the '80's.

Rick Owens has built a large following based on his sheer dresses and cutout pieces exposing unusual bits of underlayers and skin, something Lang was doing ten or fifteen years earlier.

Lang's hardon for military and industrial references can be seen in Raf Simons, Hedi Slimane and Kris Van Assche's Dior collections, Christophe Decarnin's Balmain, all the way up to Yeezy.

Lang had a penchant for contrasting blocks of different materials and treatments such as coated sleeves, rubber strips, or metallic accents.

In 1998 Lang decided to move his runway show from Paris to New York and he additionally decided to show his collection early, beating out the traditionally first Paris Fashion Week. His move led other designers such as Calvin Klein and Donna Karan to follow suit, which put NY fashion week at the start of the fashion calendar instead of the end. It was a huge shock to the Europe dominated industry and helped to shift the focus to America. New York fashion week still comes first today thanks to Lang.

In contrast to the cheaper production and designs of the '80's, Lang used carefully chosen production companies and factories with few other accounts so he could ensure the focus would be on his own label. By the end of the '90's other designers were beginning to use the same factories and distributors as Lang, something which he's said bothered him more at the time than everyone copying elements of his designs.

You bring up a good point, despite the retarded way you chose to articulate it.

Let's talk Helmut Lang post Lang and in the process clear up the confusion that lots of fashion newcomers have when they hear talk of OG lang, Prada Lang, and Theory Lang.

After Lang departed the brand Prada was left scrambling to produce a coherent collection that was suitably in the style of Lang but they didn't have the designer so they kind of extrapolated from his unfinished designs and old work. The 2005 collection was weird and included some pretty ugly stuff with details not seen in prior seasons such as asymmetrical cuts and closures. Very few stores picked up the collection and pieces are now hard to find.

The brand continued to tank financially and in 2006 Prada sold the label to Japanese holding company Link Theory, best known for the Japanese label Theory. Link Theory started releasing 'minimalist' collections vaguely inspired by Lang's work but with a strong emphasis on bias cuts and other elements previously seen only briefly in collections where Lang's own influence was questionable.

When Link Theory bought the label they moved all production from Italy, mostly to Asia, and the quality declined significantly. Most stuff was made in China, Taiwan, and other southeast asian islands. Some basics are made in South American countries like Peru and the denim and a few other pieces are made in Japan.

The HQ of the brand was initially moved from the longtime home of NYC but they have since moved their base of operations back to New York and some stuff is now even produced in the USA.

LT ended up nixing the menswear line for a while and named Nicole and Michael Colovos, previously denim designers, as the creative directors of the label. The menswear line was revived in 2014 with dark designer Alexandre Plokhov named as the creative director.

Pic related is a coat from 2005 showing an asymmetric closure not seen before in Lang's work.

To be clear I'm not saying that all current Lang is trash, it's just a completely different entity than the label run by the maestro himself.

People like to shit all over anything Lang produced after Lang left but that's just silly. Take the clothing for what it is and if you like how it looks that's fine. The denim is still quite good quality and I own a few pairs myself.

All that being said there's a huge market for old 'og' Helmut Lang pieces and it makes sense to teach newcomers how to tell the difference between old and new Lang.

Aside from just recognizing Lang's design work, the labels are the easiest way to tell old from new.

The most recognizable label is this one inspired by military issue labels. This label was used during the bulk of Lang's 90's career and sometimes included the season, either in print or hand stamped.

Thanks for this whole thread user

What's the m mean? Don't think it's the size so I've always wondered

The different labels can also help date a piece.

In later seasons the label was slimmed down to an oblong rectangle that simply read Helmut Lang. These labels were produced in four color combinations depending on the line it was associated with.

Black on white and white on black labels are generally seen on the lower priced stuff with black on white denoting basics and white on black denoting the jeans line.

White on white is the mid priced stuff, while black on black and black on grey denote mainline and runway stuff.

Couture stuff has black on black labels and says 'made to measure'.

I'm not 100% certain on this info because I've owned a few pieces that don't seem to fit those rules. I suspect that sometimes they'd just put white on white labels on white pieces and black labels on black pieces to keep the color scheme.

I'm not entirely sure but the line is found in many military garments like pic related for writing your name

I'm guessing the M stands for military service number, which is essentially a catalog number for all military issue gear

Lang may have chosen to simplify his label by conjoining these two things

>Helmut Lang, who I consider one of the most influential designers of the past thirty years

not this meme again

Most of the accessories were produced under the Helmut Lang Jeans label and feature metal tags in one of two styles. The long rounded rectangular design was used on belts, bag straps, and such things. The larger more square metal plate was used on the inside of bags.

Some very early stuff from the '80's has a label reading 'Helmut Lang Wien' but I can't seem to dig up a photo.
Late '80's stuff has a label reading Helmut Lang Collection Calla.

Prototypes occasionally turn up for sale. These labels are just long strips that say Helmut Lang Prototype with the season.

The Theory era Helmut Lang labels are pretty distinctive. There are three or four main styles.

The most common is a black and white rectangular label reading Helmut Lang with two smaller labels attached to the bottom, one with the country of manufacture and one with the size.

When the HQ was moved back to New York, they changed a lot of the labels to read Helmut Lang New York.

Some of the current labels mimic the og lang labels in their simplicity. They're black on white rectangles that just say Helmut Lang. You can tell that they're recent labels because the stitching used to attach the labels is angled rather than running parallel to the label itself.

Their are a few weird Made in Japan labels floating around (bottom of pic related). They're definitely Theory era labels but I don't know whether there's any special significance or time period when they were used.

are you sure about that? ive always thought the 'collection calla' tags were also from early 80s, but only briefly. with the vienna tags (example from a supposed 1989 piece of mine) being from the late 80s / early 90s

made in japan tags like your example are archive but only really used for basics like singlets or earlier graphic shirts

should have put this further up but the og stuff had distinctive care tags in Lang's signature eurostile font. This label is where the country of manufacture is listed.

that makes sense
you're probably right

that's what I suspected as well since I've only seen them used on undershirts and stuff

Well it's past time for me to go to bed.
If this thread is still around tomorrow I'll keep posting some stuff.

So far this is all pretty surface level stuff and there's so much more to get into. I haven't really even started on design stuff. Still, I hope y'all got something out of this.

If you're inspired, do your own research as well. At the end of the day there's no substitute for doing your own work.

good night, Veeky Forums

awesome thread

Please make more threads like this and get a trip so we can find them easily in the archive.

>advanced search
>Subject: Helmut Lang
We don't need yet another tripfag even if the content is decent for once

is plokhov still creative director? how is he doing? I remember when he had his own label and even did a colab with Uniqlo, now no one talks about him

very very nice op

please do. we can make Veeky Forums back to which it was or even better. OP could at least make more threads I understand if he doesn't want a name or trip. I'm currently gathering more pics for a new thread sometime in the future so be an the look out friend.

it will be better for trips who actually post good quality content instead of the other trips who rarely post anything beneficial. chairman, the mexican all caps guy, and fake eliza and occasionally Patrick Bateman or pigfuck. those are just the first couple off the top of my head and should say something about the trips we have now.

Raf Simons wearing aw96-97 Helmut Lang denim jacket at his bow for Dior.

good thread

op here
I've always been resistant to getting a tripcode because I've never really seen the point unless someone tries to impersonate me, which seems unlikely given that I'm mostly just posting facts and information instead of opinions

I guess I see the value for cataloging purposes
I'm gonna stick to user for now I think but we'll see

maybe you want to spearhead a Raf thread?
I'm certainly not as knowledgeable about Raf as I am about Helmut

Yes, Plokhov is still the director of the menswear line. I don't believe he ever had a hand in the womenswear. He shut down his own label at the end of 2015, which is why you're probably not hearing much about him these days. I'm not sure if he has anything else in the works.

I have always felt that Plokhov tends to get a little goofy without a design partner or corporate structure to reign him in. His best work was with Robert Geller on the label Cloak. His mainline stuff continued the dark look and razor sharp tailoring but lacked focus.

I'm definitely interested in what he does next even if his Lang stuff is not really up my alley.

Gotta go to work. Keep the discussion going or post pictures or something.

I leave you with a rare Helmut Lang chronograph.

just reading right now that plokhav was creative at versace, what an odd pairing

Yeah, but I think it worked out pretty well. Before he stepped in, the menswear line was dated and tacky. He distilled the line down to something refreshingly simple and much more modern.

He's always had a bit of a rocker edge to him so I don't think the appointment was a total surprise.

>clueless tool of a namefag advocating trips
gee I wonder why

I don't know much about Helmut Lang or fashion but recently I've been looking into designers and high-end brands. This thread is really interesting to me, thank you for taking the time to show us all this.

If anyone here wants to see some standouts/grails from Helmut Lang (and many other brands), Huiben Shop has them on display as well as some information about the piece.

huibenshop.com/collections/men

Feel free to contribute more than the "clueless tool of a namefag"

there's another website like this with more of a selection on old margiela pieces, does anyone know what it is? not endyma

op you're the fucking best

I'm gonna post some scans from Hero Magazine since it relates to OPs interests

I love huibenshop, but a lot of their stuff is really overpriced in my opinion.

maybe ln-cc? although I think most of their stuff is gone by now.

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If you don't know what the Casavant Archive is, it's an archive started by a man named David Casavant who collects items from mostly Raf Simons and Helmut Lang. Sometimes also Jil Sanders, Ann Demeulemeester, Maison Martin Margiela, and/or Dior. Here's a article which goes into deeper details.

gq.com/gallery/raf-simons-helmut-lang-archive-kanye-west-big-sean

I won't post credits on these since they are on the pages themselves.

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Man I wish I had the money to start archive of designers I like

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you and me too, friend.

he's just some kid who gets money from his parents

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B U Y T H I S

grailed.com/listings/1367442-Helmut--Lang-1998-Archive-Five-Pocket-Jeans

yea that's true. I think it's said in the video by Highsnobiety. I think his dad's money pays for it, but there's no denying his collection is incredibly impressive.

and that's it. I hope you guys enjoyed it, thank you.

Actually, he's a stylist and he started collecting as a hobby. When he began bringing pieces from his collection to shoots people realized he has a lot of cool stuff and stared hitting him up.

hi david

bump for a great thread

Jerry Lorenzo stole this

Well yeah. He stole just about everything he's ever 'designed'. He's taken from such broad sources as Lang, Simons, Owens, Slimane, Decarnin, and Tisci, among others.

Stampd LA is another egregious Lang thief what with their strappy bomber jackets.

I really have no idea how shit like this makes it to production without the majority of people involved along the way being like, 'yo dude, that's a lang piece'

Since we're here, I'll post pics of my favorite jacket.

It's a 75/25 wool/polyamide chore coat, with a pencil pocket and thick elbow pads. It's very warm.

not enough people know who lang is.
A lot of stampd's recent shit is just a mish mash of lang, john elliot, and discount yeezy season.

It needs a couple repairs but it's holding up pretty well. I've had it for a good while.

beautiful and utilitarian piece
take good care of it =]

This thread is beautiful, we need more like it

I have a Lang blazer. My only complaint is that it doesn't have surgeon's cuffs.

Not og

surgeon cuffs are a meme, my saint laurent shit doesnt have surgeon cuffs, who gives af

that's because it's a newer Theory era piece

Lang was known for his attention to small details from surgeon's cuffs to finished inner seams to special hanging loops. Those details were left behind when the label was sold.

How do you like the blazer aside from that?
What's the quality like? How's the fit?
I haven't handled much newer stuff aside from the jeans.

I think they're nice for layering. I have a Rick and an Ann jacket that have them and I generally wear them at least partially unbuttoned. The Rick jacket is flared at the cuff as well so it's meant to be worn a bit open.

Aside from that surgeon's cuffs are not really necessary. It's more of a guarantee of a semblance of quality since only top tier labels will take the time and expense to feature them.

Lang's treated his advertising more like art than ads, often choosing to highlight a closeup of a garment or treat the clothes as an aside.

This stood in stark contrast to the in your face sales ads of other labels at the time.

This approach to advertising as art and art as advertising is best seen in this ad, which juxtaposes a Lang shoot with a vintage Robert Mapplethorpe photo of the artist Louise Bourgeois.

This old and new side by side attempts to distract from the commercial nature of the brand by presenting the photos as an art piece. At the same time, the strikingly different campaign was designed to stick in peoples' mind and reinforce the brand. Though the Bourgeois photo was not his own and credit is given to Mapplethorpe, the most prominent name in the layout is Helmut Lang, speaking to his act of designing the ad itself.

thanks OP, u r hero

It fits slim, which is what I like.

It's a nice blazer, all in all -- though, it's not at the level of Owens, whose blazers I absolutely love.

great thread op, cheers

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Theory Lang gets shit on way too much. While not as groundbreaking or interesting as Lang originally was they're still a huge step up from Prada Lang and generally make somewhat decent basics. They've basically just carried on a lot of OG Lang's minimalist approach.