Helmut Lang (born 10 March 1956) is an Austrian artist and former fashion designer and mentor who lives and works in New York and on Long Island.
Career
In 1986, Lang showed his first Helmut Lang runway collection in Paris at Centre Georges Pompidou. His first Helmut men's collection debuted in 1987 and a decade later he moved his label from Vienna to New York.
Lang used unconventional materials such as rubber, feathers and metallic fabrics and redefined the silhouette of the 1990s and early 2000s. He broke away from the runway show-as-spectacle in the height of the 1980s opulence and was the first to stream his collection online in 1998.
Lang's brand was known for its utilitarian, minimalist aesthetic, as well as for his prestige range of denim.
In 1999, Lang sold a 51% stake in his company to the Prada Group, with Prada running distribution and manufacturing and Lang controlling design and advertising. Afterwards, Prada developed a line of Helmut Lang accessories such as shoes, belts and bags, and opened Helmut Lang stores in Hong Kong and Singapore. Sales under the Prada Group fell from $100 million in 1999 to $37 million in 2003. The brand's decision to cancel the licensing for an external company to manufacture and market its profitable range of Helmut Lang Jeans was cited as one of the reasons for its loss in revenue. In 2005 he left his label and retired from fashion. He has since been based in New York City and on Long Island as a practicing artist. In 2006, Prada sold the Helmut Lang brand to Link Theory Holdings.
Lang has collaborated with artists Jenny Holzer and Louise Bourgeois. His recent works explore abstract sculptural forms and physical arrangements beyond the limitations of the human body. Lang had his first solo art exhibition ALLES GLEICH SCHWER at the Kestnergesellschaft in Hannover in 2008 and has since presented solo exhibitions internationally. Lang has published excerpts from his ongoing art projects Long Island Diaries and The Selective Memory Series in a number of publications, such as Purple, BUTT Magazine , Fanzine 137 , Visionaire and most recently The Travel Almanac .
Work
This timeline outlines Helmut Lang's work in fashion and art up until 2021.
Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
Helmut Lang fashion 1977–2005
This timeline outlines the developments in Lang's fashion as well significant attributes of key collections.
Collections
Helmut Lang's works are part of the following collections:
Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens
Fashion Museum, Bath, United Kingdom
Groninger Museum, Groninger, The Netherlands
LACMA, Los Angeles
MAK, Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Vienna, Austria
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
MOMU, Antwerp, Belgium
Musée de la Mode et du Textile, Paris
Musée Galliera, Paris
Museo de la Moda, Santiago, Chile
Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, USA
SONS, Kruishoutem, Belgium
The Arts Center, Melbourne, Australia
The Museum at The Fashion Institute of Technology, New York
The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway
Architecture projects
Original Helmut Lang stores (until 2005)
All of the original Helmut Lang stores have been closed. The last one to close was the Paris location in late 2005. Most of the art-inspired stores had been designed by Lang in collaboration with Gluckman Mayner Architects of New York.
1995
Helmut Lang Munich, Kardinal-Faulhaber-Straße, 3, 80333, Munich, Germany. Helmut Lang Milan, Via St. Andrea, 14, 20212, Milan, Italy.
1997
Helmut Lang Vienna, Seilergasse, 6, 1010, Vienna, Austria. Helmut Lang New York, Worldwide Flagship Store, 80 Greene Street, New York, NY 10012. Helmut Lang Headquarters, 80 Greene Street, New York, NY 10012, USA.