Helmut Lang Re-Edition Brings The Designer’s Greatest Hits Back To Life

Helmut Lang—the original Helmut Lang, before it was sold to Prada and then to the conglomerate that owns Uniqlo—epitomized modernity, urbanity, and high-low glamour. This was back in the boomtime ’90s, when people had jobs and those jobs paid money. For those who spent that money on fashion, Helmut Lang provided an intellectual alternative to mall culture. Black, white, transparent, or metallic, with proportions long and slim enough to flatter its long, slim clientele, it exuded an unanswerable aura of dispassionate cool. It gave the world Zoolander and, before that, Sprockets. It was the aesthetic equivalent of air conditioning: a chilly chemical draft that facilitated life and prevented sweating. Today, the menswear world has mutated: Helmut’s minimalism has given way to Gucci’s maximalism, and fashion often seems like Renaissance cosplay on the grand stage of Instagram. The reissued pieces you see here harken back to a simpler time—when the present still felt like the present. Read more at GQ.