Helmut Lang was born in 1956 in Vienna and opened his first studio in 1977.
By the mid-eighties he became a celebrated designer exhibiting his first ready-to-wear collections in his hometown of Vienna.
In 1986 he started to show women's clothes in Paris and this was followed in 1987 by a men's collection.
Lang is considered to have inspired a generation of new designers, like the new talents from Beligum such as Dries van Noten or Dirk Bikkembergs.
In 1993, Lang was appointed professor of fashion design at the Vienna College for the Applied Arts.
His designs are casual but because of their clinical cut they are never sloppy.
Helmut Lang has a number of different brands for his different designs.
In 1995 he introduced his first underwear collection followed the year after by a jeans line.
The introduction of his underwear collection in 1995 and the jeans line in 1996 is seen as a move to broaden his customer base with more readily available and less exclusive products.
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