Helmut Lang (fashion brand)

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This article is about the fashion label. For the Austrian-born fashion designer, see Helmut Lang (fashion designer).

The Helmut Lang fashion brand was created by Austrian fashion designer Helmut Lang (born 1956) in 1986. Lang is known for his minimalist, deconstructivist, and often severe designs. The Helmut Lang brand still exists today, but has been carried on without Mr. Lang's involvement since 2005.

Originally from Vienna, where he set up his own fashion boutique in 1979, Lang branched out to Paris in the early 1980s to be closer to the international fashion scene. He became famous for his simple but refined designs, his slim suits in black or white, his denim collection, and the use of high-tech fabrics. Lang eventually took the opportunity of his label's growing success and moved his company's headquarters to New York City in 1997. His fashion was sold in upscale department stores and through select retailers, as well as in signature Helmut Lang stores around the world. In 1999 Lang entered into a partnership with Prada Group which resulted in the acquisition of the Helmut Lang brand by Prada in 2004, and Mr. Lang's departure from the label in 2005. Prada, however, struggled with the brand and consequently sold it to Link Theory of Japan in 2006. Link Theory then re-launched the Helmut Lang label with new designers in 2007.

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[edit] The label

Lang, a fashion autodidact, set up a made-to-measure fashion studio in Vienna in 1977 and opened a boutique named "Bou Bou Lang" there in 1979, at the age of 23. His clothes were fairly successful in his native Austria, and, after a fair exhibition of his clothes at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, initiated by the Austrian government, he branched out successfully to Paris in 1986 and created the label "Helmut Lang". He eventually withdrew from Paris and returned to Vienna in the late 1980s.

At this time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, minimalist fashion was at its height. His clothes were made with very sharp lines and careful cuts, creating basic but extremely elegant silhouettes in high quality and often high-tech fabrics. Lang's favorite colors were black and white. His slim men's suits were a favorite among fashionable advertising managers and other creatives of the time. He was compared to Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto for his sometimes austere, intellectual designs.

[edit] New York City

Lang moved to New York in 1997 and subsequently set up his company's headquarters in 80 Greene St. in SoHo in 1998. In New York, he decided in April 1998, three days before his designs were to be presented to a New York audience for the first time, to show his collection through a live internet broadcast to the world, via the newly created company's web site. As a first in the fashion scene, ads for the brand could be seen on New York taxi tops in 1998.[1] The following season he announced to show his collections not only before New York Fashion Week, but also before the Milan and Paris runway shows. As a result, with many American designers following suit, New York Fashion Week was permanently moved up six weeks to herald the established runway shows.[2] From 2000 on, unconventional print ads for the brand were placed with National Geographic magazine.[3]

[edit] Helmut Lang fashion

Throughout the years, both a women's and men's line existed, kept under a single name and always presented in one fashion show. Underwear (1995) and jeans (1996) lines as well as accessories, such as footwear (1990) and and fragrances (1999) were launched, but otherwise the brand was kept unified to solidify its identity and strength.

The runway show venues for the Helmut Lang label were switched from Paris (until 1998) to New York by Mr. Lang and back again to Paris by Prada (from 2002 to 2005). The collections/presentations used to be called séances de travail (French for "working sessions") by Mr. Lang.

[edit] Prada Partnership

In 1999, Milan-based fashion house Prada acquired 51% of the Helmut Lang company in the course of a multi-brand strategy, which also included the acquisition of German fashion label Jil Sander.

Despite the quality of the clothes and the slight revival of minimalist fashion in the early 2000s, the Helmut Lang brand did not fare well. Prada decided to cancel the Helmut Lang Jeans license, which had been responsible for more than half of the brand's sales, and intended to develop an in-house accessories line. But neither the new accessories, nor the fragrances, proved a large success. Mr. Lang is said to have insisted that one of his colognes be produced when a test study by the manufacturer-to-be, Procter & Gamble, strongly suggested modifying the scent. After alleged disputes with Prada Group's CEO Patrizio Bertelli on how the brand should be continued, and after Mr. Lang had sold his remaining shares to Prada in October 2004, he left his own label in February 2005.[4] Lang joined the growing number of designer departures, including Jil Sander from her own label at Prada and Tom Ford from Gucci. However, Mr. Lang has publicly maintained that he had "no problem" with Mr. Bertelli.[5]

After Mr. Lang's departure, Prada unsuccessfully tried to continue the collections with an in-house design team. In March 2005, Prada closed down the label's headquarters in SoHo, New York. In September 2005, Prada announced that production of the lines had been halted. By the end of 2005, all that existed of the brand was its name: the design atelier had been closed, the collections had been discontinued and all of the art-inspired Helmut Lang stores had been shut down (with the exception of the Paris location, to sell remaining stock). The corporate web site, which formerly displayed pictures of the collections, remained online, but the contents could no longer be seen.

[edit] Acquisition by Link Theory

On March 17, 2006, Prada Group announced that, after six loss-making years, Link Theory Holdings (LTH) of Tokyo would be acquiring the Helmut Lang brand for an estimated €20 million. This came about three weeks after Prada had sold the Jil Sander label to British equity firm Change Capital Partners (CCP). Already in spring 2005, it had been rumored that Prada was trying to sell the label. Prada Group was said to want to concentrate on its core labels, Prada and Miu Miu, again. The Japanese holding company LTH, developer of the theory fashion label in Japan and the US, re-launched the Helmut Lang collections under the direction of a "suitable" designer for the spring/summer 2007 season (presented in fall 2006), in select boutiques worldwide as a “contemporary brand".[6] The new label was said to be based out of New York City. LTH also owns profitable German fashion house Rosner, which it bought in late October 2005, as well as the Joie, PLS+T and Kulson labels.[7]

Rumor had it for a while that Russian-born designer Alexandre Plokhov of menswear label Cloak, a former men's pattern maker for fashion house Marc Jacobs, and winner of the 2005 Swarovski's Perry Ellis Award for Emerging Talent Menswear, might be the new designer for Helmut Lang. It was never, though, expected that Lang himself would return to the label that bears his name, although Chikara Sasake, president and chief executive of LTH, gave to understand that if Lang “wants to come back, the door is always open”.[8]

[edit] Helmut Lang brand re-launch

In May 2006, it was announced that Michael and Nicole Colovos, an American-New Zealand designer couple, who formerly had their own Los Angeles-based denim label Habitual, had been installed by Link Theory as creative directors for the new Helmut Lang brand. From February 2007, select upscale retailers such as Barneys or Bergdorf Goodman carry the spring/summer 2007 Helmut Lang contemporary sportswear collection. The design office has been set up in West Chelsea in New York. The collection, described as "a commercial reduction of [Mr. Lang's] fashion identity",[9] has received quite favorable reviews even though it is clearly not seen as a continuation of the original line. The item prices in the collection are about 20% above those for comparable Link Theory items and, hence, below the original Helmut Lang prices. Link Theory expects to generate US$ 8 million in revenues in 2008, and make a profit in 2009 with the label.[10] The company also announced that "over the long term" they intend "to also establish exclusive Helmut Lang shops" in the US, Europe and Japan.[11]

The Helmut Lang web site was re-activated at the end of 2006 and was fully launched in spring 2007. Lang, who now resides on Long Island of independent means, is said not to be involved in the re-launch in any way.

[edit] Helmut Lang stores

[edit] Original stores (until 2005)

All of the original, art-inspired signature Helmut Lang stores that existed in Vienna, Munich, Milan, Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo, as well as several stores-in-store in the Asian market, that existed between 1995 and 2005 have been closed. The last one to close was the Paris location in 2005 to sell remaining stock.

[edit] New stores (after 2007)

In March 2007, Link Theory opened the first post-Prada signature Helmut Lang store in Tokyo's fashionable Aoyama district. In Japan, the company has since then installed several Helmut Lang stores-in-store at local department stores. In August 2007, a new freestanding Helmut Lang store was opened on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles.[12] It is, after the Tokyo store, the second signature Helmut Lang store since the closing of the last original store in Paris. The store, in close proximity to Melrose Place, is adjacent to an existing theory store at 8424 Melrose Avenue. Another Helmut Lang store opened on September 28, 2007 on Maiden Lane in San Francisco, in the building previously occupied by Jil Sander.[13] In New York City, a temporary 'pop-up shop' opened in mid-December 2007, while the company is apparently looking for a larger location in the Meatpacking District.[14]

[edit] Original fragrances

Three different perfumes were associated with the Helmut Lang label, produced in cooperation with Procter & Gamble, all of which were discontinued with the closing of the original brand in 2005.

  • Helmut Lang (women's) - 2000
  • Helmut Lang Pour Homme - 2001
  • Helmut Lang Cuiron (men's) - 2002

A Re-launch of the now discontinued Cuiron For Men cologne is set for the Fall of 2008 by Link Theory Holdings under the brand of Helmut Lang. Proctor & Gamble will be the producer of this new Cuiron Cologne, as they were for the original 2002 version.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.radicaladvertising.de/request.php?f_categoryId=8&f_articleId=579&PHPSESSID=43c49432dd32bcd361c75fea21325ea2
  2. ^ Helmut Lang - New York Times
  3. ^ Helmut Lang - New York Times
  4. ^ [1]
  5. ^ John Seabrook | Stories | The Invisible Designer: Helmut Lang
  6. ^ Prada sells Helmut Lang to Japanese - Times Online
  7. ^ Link Theory Holdings Company Ltd Company Profile - 3373 JAPAN Market Size, Market Share and Demand Forecast
  8. ^ Helmut Lang's new theory - International Herald Tribune
  9. ^ A new Helmut line, of sorts - Print Version - International Herald Tribune
  10. ^ FT.com - Link Theory sets turnround goals for Helmut Lang
  11. ^ LTH FY06 Press Release
  12. ^ [2]
  13. ^ [3] [4]
  14. ^ [5] [6]

[edit] Sources