Helmut Lang, the wonder years.
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My friend and esteemed fellow writer Dean Mayo Davies turned my eye to Helmut Lang today, with his brilliant conversation with the stylist Panos Yiapanis for Ponystep here.
The pastiche, appropriation, re-interpretation, and down right ‘ripping off’ of the visionary designer is never more evident than today, a decade after his peak in the late 1990s, during his enduring friendship with muse Melanie Ward.
Here are a few of my favourite images of Helmut’s work, shot and/or styled by Panos, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Sims and other artistic juggernauts of the industry.
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this is amazing yes!
great find.
just amazing
Oh Helmut.
I’ve been thinking about this man a lot lately.
If fashion were a shape, it would be a circle. Always travelling in a cyclic motion, re-inventing, re-forming and re-releasing. We’ve borrowed the “boho” from the seventies. Begun obliterating through the eighties, starting with slogan tees and offensive fluorescent colours, now we’re in the midst of late eighties power shoulders, hardcore hardware and licked fringes. The recessions have been timed well, and with any luck, the nineties and all the minimal brilliance of Klein, Sander (!!) and Lang will resurface next. Fingers crossed.
How I love the minimalists, in art and fashion.
Although Lang’s work exists under the tier of high-fashion and exceptional craftsmanship is paramount, the industrial aspect is still of the utmost importance to his identity. The clean severity is not removed just to show a human hand is involved in the making. His dedication was absolute, even as consumer tastes changed. Lang used the minimal form to emphasise casual wear and sportswear infused garments, and I feel his use of layering has been most influential. He was conjuring up such forward-thinking designs in the eighties, along with Sander. I am amazed.
Take a look back at the Fall/Winter 04.05 collection and you will notice draped shearling leather jackets (Rick Owens etc etc), collaged chiffon dresses (Rodarte) and horse hair trim on dresses and shoes (Tisci at Givenchy). It’s one collection and it’s one example of unsurpassed influence.
Where are such designers these days?
I salute you Sir Lang.