Item 2019.53 - Helmut Lang Hand-Painted Denim Jacket

Self-taught Austrian designer Helmut Lang (b. 1956) showed his first womenswear collection in Paris in 1986, followed by his debut menswear line in 1987. From 1988 both men’s and women’s collections were shown together on the runway. Lang is widely credited as being the pioneer of the rise of designer denim with the launch of Helmut Lang Jeans for Spring Summer 1997, which were produced under licence by GTR Group SpA and distributed by Onward Kashiyama USA Inc. In 1997 the company moved its headquarters from Austria to New York and started showing at New York Fashion Week. In April 1998 Lang became the first designer to debut their collection online rather than a traditional runway show. The collection consisted of a fifteen-minute video and photographs of eighty-one looks which could be viewed online at helmutlangny.com. Selected fashion editors were also sent a CD-ROM.
In 1999, with sales of around €100 million, Prada acquired 51 per cent of the Helmut Lang company. By 2003 sales had dropped to €27.7 million; however, Prada bought the remaining 49 per cent of the company in 2004 and Lang exited his eponymous label in 2005. Prada sold the company to Japanese company Link Theory Holdings in 2006, who appointed Nicole and Michael Colovos as the new creative directors for the brand. After eight years, the duo left Helmut Lang in February 2014. Rather than appoint a new creative director, the company appointed Isabella Burley, then editor of Dazed & Confused magazine, to the new post of editor-in-residence in 2017, and Shayne Oliver of Hood by Air as its first guest designer. In January 2018 Burley was replaced by Alix Browne, founding editor of V Magazine, together with Mark Howard Thomas as creative director of menswear. Browne left in January 2019 and Thomas in October 2019. Thomas Cawson was then creative director until April 2020. In May 2023, Peter Do was appointed creative director of the brand. In 2010 Helmut Lang personally donated his archive to twelve museums worldwide, including MAK in Vienna, Austria and the Fashion Museum, Bath, England.
Sources: Booknoise.net; New Vision; The New York Times; WWD.