"Downbeat elegance is founded in precise proportions and clean tailoring; balancing hi-tech fabrics with real clothing. The result is fashion put into a different context to become something known, unknown." Helmut Lang
Helmut Lang was born in Austria in 1956, and launched his fashion line in 1977. In 1986, he moved to Paris and his collections became an immediate sensation at Paris Fashion Week.
Lang's understated style with simple silhouettes and complex textures made him the most copied designer of the 1990s. His clothes are "now" and "modern" above all else. Lang is known for incongruous fabrics and mixtures of downscale and upscale items in the same ensemble.
In 2000, Lang became the first designer ever nominated for the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards in Menswear, Womenswear, and Accessories all in the same year. He won the Menswear Award that year.
In 1999, Lang sold a majority interest in his company to Prada and continued to design his line, but left (and sold the rest of his interest in the company to Prada) in 2004.
Prade was not successful using their own designers to continue his line, and closed it down the following year.
In 2006, Prada sold the Helmut Lang label to a Japanese conglomerate, which is reactivating the line for 2007 under a new design team. While Helmut Lang is not involved anymore with the clothes that bear his name, the door is open for him to return to the brand he made world-famous.