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08

A brief in mens fashion and culture in five chapters

OUTSIDER
Eighth Issue
Spring / Summer
2016

210

Helmut Langs Thin Line

211

by Nerys dEsclercs

Who better than a flneur lost in the crowd to define modernity? If Baudelaires notion dates from the nineteenth century, it certainly asserted itself in
time. This accuracy of the ephemeral and eternal juxtaposition is striking.
If modernity back then is the same as modernity now, then is modernity
timeless? And that is the whole point. Applied to Helmut Langs work, this
statement can only be so true. Through the establishment of new trends
and innovations in designs, Lang anchored himself in time and became a
reference in fashion years after he retired from the industry in 2005. This
proves that he did not shift from designer to artist, as many say, but that he
has always been an artist. A master of his mediums, that is the manipulation
of fabrics, Helmut Lang turns what he touches into art and he literally did
this with his Make it Hard solo exhibition, where he burnt his collections to
create three metre-high sculptures.
Helmut Langs career as a fashion designer didnt last very long. He established his eponymous label after leaving his hometown, Vienna. I never

felt typically Austrian, he once said to artist Roni Horn. That was probably
because great things awaited him in Paris, and then in New York where he
still lives. Of course, he draws his intellect from the great cultural influences
he grew up with. Coming from the home of artists such as Klimt and Schiele
certainly puts a standard, which Lang proved to live up to. His career lasted
about 20 years, which is far less than other designers such as Rei Kawakubo
who runs Comme des Garons since 1973. But for Helmut Lang, it only took
those 20 years around the nineties to become one of fashions most recognized and adored creator. Forward thinking but not futuristic. That is Helmut
Langs clothes best definition. Such recognition for a man who considers
himself an outsider. Outsider from fashion, outsider from people or as he
calls it, niceties outsider from the common thought. When he declined to
attend the American Fashion Designer Award Ceremony in the year 2000,
the whole fashion industry was outraged. But who can blame him? He is not
here to have his photograph taken, but to make magic. Helmut Lang is way
more than a fashion designer, or a fine artist. He is a visionary who refuses
to think like most people.
This resulted in his creations lying outside the box. When garments were his
medium, he introduced elements that are still seen today. Military components,
utilitarian clothing, high-tech fabrics These are only a few of the novelties
Lang brought to the fashion industry. Moving on to sculptures, he offered an
art that made you think and wonder: what would it be like to be in his head?
How would it feel to have so many ideas and manage to execute them in such
a refreshing way? Take his Make it Hard exhibition for instance: after a fire occurred in his clothing studio, Helmut Lang did what no other designer would
have done, ever. Burn the rest of his Sances de Travail archive, 20 years worth
of work, garments that people would die to own do not worry, he donated
some items to museums around the world before saying goodbye to his collections. But yes. He did it. He burnt the material evidence of his fashion revolutions. Except it only served him in asserting his position as being different.
As he put it himself, shifting from designer to artist changed his way of
working while keeping the core theme of reutilization. Or putting things out
of context. After bringing NASA elements to the catwalk, he turned high value
garments into real works of art. And from sculpting around the body, he now
creates the body. And maybe there was no shift at all. Maybe it was just the
natural evolution of his work. What has always interested Helmut Lang are
fabrics, materials and textures. Things he has been working on since designing
his own t-shits at the age of eighteen. And the garments he burnt were not
lost, as they contributed to his art exhibition, reflecting on the idea of materialism and recycling. After all, who needs the physical proof of Langs talent
when everyone knows about it already? Perhaps the memory of his clothes is
better, as it is the perfect way to idealise them and dream of them even more.
In any case, Helmut Lang does things differently. Which is exactly why people
keep trying to follow his step, without ever surpassing him.

Essay

Nerys dEclercs

Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent; it is one

half of art, the other being the eternal and the immovable.
Charles Baudelaire

Helmut Langs thin line

Chapter 4