{"id":961705,"date":"2025-12-08T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=961705"},"modified":"2025-12-08T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T08:00:00","slug":"getting-into-helmut-langs-head-at-a-new-exhibition-in-vienna","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=961705","title":{"rendered":"Getting Into Helmut Lang\u2019s Head at a New Exhibition in Vienna"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Runway<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Getting Into Helmut Lang\u2019s Head at a New Exhibition in Vienna<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Laird Borrelli-Persson<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Helmut Lang, printed layout proof for a spread in Ry\u016bko Tsushin<\/em> magazine with handwritten notes, Helmut Lang Collection Hommes Femmes S\u00e9ance de Travail D\u00e9fil\u00e9 # Hiver 93\/94, Paris, 1993. Art direction: Dagmar Sucrow-Barthel.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Alexandre Lardeur \/ MAK Helmut Lang Archive, LNI 566-11-26 \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When a blockbuster new Helmut Lang exhibition opens in Vienna on December 10, it will have been 7,625 days since the designer announced his departure from his brand. MAK\u2019s show \u201cHelmut Lang S\u00e9ance De Travail 1986\u20132005\u201d demonstrates how Lang, now working as an artist, is still influencing how we experience fashion\u2014and not only with regard to what comes down the catwalk but also in terms of brand identity, as expressed internally, through retail, and via external communication. The museum is uniquely positioned to do all this as it is home to the largest Lang archive. Thanks in part to a donation from the designer in 2011, it encompasses 10,000 items, some garments and the majority materials (look books, advertising campaigns, Polaroids, proofs, tear sheets, backstage passes), that document the unseen work that went into building the iconic label.<\/p>\n

One of the aims of \u201cHelmut Lang S\u00e9ance De Travail 1986\u20132005\u201d is to fulfill the designer\u2019s wish that MAK\u2019s holdings constitute a living<\/em> archive. \u201cI hope it inspires others to have the courage to find their own voice,\u201d the designer said in a statement. \u201cThe past is never easier than the present; the present is always the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the course of two years and with much creativity, MAK\u2019s general director, Lilli Hollein, has been addressing Lang\u2019s total legacy. The upcoming show in Vienna is a kind of bookend to last year\u2019s \u201cHelmut Lang: What Remains Behind,\u201d an exhibition of Lang\u2019s sculptures at the MAK Center\u2019s Schindler House in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Helmut Lang, printed proof for an advertisement with three cummerbunds, Helmut Lang Collection Hommes Femmes S\u00e9ance de Travail D\u00e9fil\u00e9 # Hiver 01\/02, 2001<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: MAK Helmut Lang Archive, LNI 566-9-19 \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Hollein says that the new exhibition is \u201cmore than [a fashion exhibition]. Simply showing Helmut Lang garments on dressed mannequins would not be the appropriate approach. Architecture, collaborations with artists\u2014especially female artists\u2014advertising, and dramaturgy\u2014all of these are important elements to understand his enormously visionary approach. What we are showing is immersive in a very special way. We take you backstage, to the stores and atelier. You will intuitively understand the essence of his approach and why this brand was such an epitome of coolness and influences so many designers until today.\u201d (Indeed, there is much evidence of this in the spring 2026 collections.) Curator Marlies Wirth adds that Lang addressed fashion in \u201cthe same way that artists would approach the work. So my claim is he was always an artist. He just did not call himself an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Organized in five parts, the exhibition winds its way through the entirety of Lang\u2019s years in fashion. It opens with the designer\u2019s history-making fall 1998 show, which was presented on CD-ROM. Speaking to me in 2016 about this breakthrough, Lang explained, \u201cThis was at the moment when I moved my company from Europe to the United States. It was, in many ways, a new beginning for me and for how I communicate my work. I sensed at the time that the internet would grow into something much bigger than imaginable, so I thought it was the right moment to challenge the norm and present the collection online. It was a shock to the system but a beginning of the new normal. In terms of the broader context of the industry, we made in the same season the entire collection available on a public platform, allowing consumers for the first time to get an unfiltered view of my work.\u201d Like many firsts attributed to Lang, his embrace of technology is one we take for granted today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Helmut Lang, interior of the Helmut Lang headquarters, 142 Greene Street, New York, designed by Helmut Lang and Gluckman Mayner Architects, 2002<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: MAK Helmut Lang Archive \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Helmut Lang, interior of the Helmut Lang design studio with Spider Couple<\/em> (2003) by Louise Bourgeois, 142 Greene Street, New York, 2004<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: MAK Helmut Lang Archive \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The visitor continues from LED screen displays to see an actual example of the brand\u2019s rule-breaking taxi-top advertising, a partial recreation of the Greene Street store, and photographic documentation of it. The importance of New York as a place is obvious in Lang\u2019s work. More significantly, the city affected Lang\u2019s way of being\u2014or, alternatively, his way of being was perfectly in tune with that of New York at the time. \u201cWe all know that it\u2019s a city that never sleeps,\u201d says Wirth. \u201cYou walk not only when the light turns green, but you anticipate walking.\u201d That restlessness and unpredictability helped shape Lang\u2019s philosophy of dress: \u201cYou live your life, you should be ready for living your life, and the clothes should adapt to you,\u201d she notes. \u201cYou should not adapt to the clothes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Helmut Lang, New York City taxi-top advertising, 1998\u20132004<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Christian Mendez \/ MAK Helmut Lang Archive, LNI 649<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The centerpiece of the immersive S\u00e9ance De Travail section is a blown-up seating plan printed onto the floor. Lang\u2019s chosen venues were art galleries, where guests were sometimes seated neatly in rows; at others, they were crowded together in close proximity to the models. Building out this section are show invitations and 3,000 look book images digitized for touchscreens, allowing visitors to customize their experience.<\/p>\n

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Helmut Lang, black-and-white copy of a seating chart, Helmut Lang Collection Hommes Femmes S\u00e9ance de Travail D\u00e9fil\u00e9 # Hiver 04\/05 (2004), Avenue Georges Lafont 84, Paris<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: MAK Helmut Lang Archive \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Materials on display in the Made to Measure and Perfumery sections largely focus on advertising, including, of course, Lang\u2019s famous \u201cI Smell You on My Skin\u201d project with Jenny Holzer. Of note here are the designer\u2019s use of white space in advertising, the infrequency with which he displayed actual products or garments on models, and his collaborations with the Robert Mapplethorpe estate and a cadre of living photographers, each bringing a distinct view to the brand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Helmut Lang, Helmut Lang Parfums supplement from The New York Times<\/em>, text by Jenny Holzer, 2001<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: MAK Helmut Lang Archive, LNI 572-2-3 \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Helmut Lang, Helmut Lang Parfums supplement from The New York Times<\/em>, photography by Larry Larimer, 2001<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: MAK Helmut Lang Archive, LNI 572-2-3 \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Sitting near the finished advertisements are layouts with handwritten notes. The idea, Wirth explains, was to allow visitors to \u201clearn about the process. That\u2019s the main concept of the show. Get into the mindset of Helmut Lang. Maybe try and get into the analog media history of how things worked when you didn\u2019t just click a button in InDesign and had to actually send your layouts back and forth with a messenger and to test stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

From there, the visitor progresses to the Backstage section. On view here are Polaroids of the design process and collection fittings that, the curator says, \u201cshow all the intricate hidden labor and collective work that goes into the whole thing.\u201d Her aim, she explains, is \u201cto bring to the foreground that backstage is more than just having access with a little wristband. It is a whole world of relationships, of stress, of exact timing, of preparation, of detail that goes into that collectively, before you then enter the runway with the finished look.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Helmut Lang, fitting Polaroid, Look 10, Helmut Lang Collection Hommes Femmes S\u00e9ance de Travail D\u00e9fil\u00e9 # Hiver 04\/05, 2004.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: MAK Helmut Lang Archive, LNI 575-11-2 \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Helmut Lang, run-of-show Polaroids mounted on paper, Helmut Lang Collection Hommes Femmes S\u00e9ance de Travail D\u00e9fil\u00e9 # \u00c9t\u00e9 98, 1997<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Djordjevic Branislav \/ MAK Helmut Lang Archive, LNI 572-1 \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Helmut Lang, page from a look book (Look 23), Helmut Lang Collection Hommes Femmes S\u00e9ance de Travail D\u00e9fil\u00e9 # Hiver 03\/04, 2003<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: MAK Helmut Lang Archive, LNI 563-69 \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

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Helmut Lang, page from a look book (Look 22), Helmut Lang Collection Hommes Femmes S\u00e9ance de Travail D\u00e9fil\u00e9 # Hiver 03\/04, 2003<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: MAK Helmut Lang Archive, LNI 563-67 \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When it comes to the actual garments, Wirth wanted to emphasize how Lang transformed tailoring from something traditional, bordering on outdated, into something dynamic. She emphasizes texture (the lace embedded in latex on \u201cthe 1994 dress of the year\u201d and stingray bags) and the concept of adaptability that extended from garments to fragrances. Speaking of one of Lang\u2019s signature jackets with built-in shoulder straps, she says, \u201cIt\u2019s not only worn\u2014it can be deployed.\u201d<\/p>\n

A subsection within the Media & Cultural presence section is dedicated to artist collaborations, ranging from installations in stores to the selection of photographers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Helmut Lang, video still, Helmut Lang Collection Hommes Femmes S\u00e9ance de Travail D\u00e9fil\u00e9 # Hiver 94\/95 (1994). Depicted person: Kirsten Owen.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: MAK Helmut Lang Archive \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHelmut Lang S\u00e9ance De Travail 1986\u20132005\u201d isn\u2019t just a fashion exhibition, and Lang wasn\u2019t just a minimalist. Lang, Wirth says, \u201cgrew up in the countryside in Austria, and his grandfather was a shoemaker. Essentialism is a trope that we use to describe Lang\u2019s approach instead of minimalism because it\u2019s about the essence of things stripped down to their core elements. So [he was] looking at workwear or a well-made shoe from the standpoint that it needs to be durable, of high quality with good materials, and serve a purpose\u2014to protect or make you able to do a certain profession. And then he translated it into his visual language.\u201d Design for living, in other words.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Wirth makes a case that one of Lang\u2019s great legacies is the \u201ccultural insert, rather than focusing on product consumption or the brand itself.\u201d This idea\u2014that we exist as individuals within a larger social construct; that we are part of something bigger related to community rather than commodity\u2014is an important one, especially in this time of societal division. Lang\u2019s work continues to be important because it always uncompromisingly marries aesthetics to purpose and progress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Helmut Lang, printed leaflet for Toalady\u2019s, Japan, Helmut Lang Collection Hommes Femmes S\u00e9ance de Travail D\u00e9fil\u00e9 # Hiver 93\/94, Paris, 1993. Art direction: Dagmar Sucrow-Barthel.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Photo: Alexandre Lardeur \/ MAK Helmut Lang Archive, LNI 1778-3-6 \/ Courtesy of hl-art<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHelmut Lang S\u00e9ance De Travail 1986\u20132005: Excerpts From the MAK Helmut Lang Archive\u201d is on view at MAK from December 10, 2025, to May 3, 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source URL: http:\/\/vogue.com\/article\/getting-into-helmut-lang-s-head-at-a-new-exhibition-in-vienna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Runway Getting Into Helmut Lang\u2019s Head at a New Exhibition in Vienna By Laird Borrelli-Persson December 8, 2025 Helmut Lang, printed layout proof for a spread in Ry\u016bko Tsushin magazine with handwritten notes, Helmut Lang Collection Hommes Femmes S\u00e9ance de Travail D\u00e9fil\u00e9 # Hiver 93\/94, Paris, 1993. Art direction: Dagmar Sucrow-Barthel. Photo: Alexandre Lardeur \/ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":961706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[50],"class_list":["post-961705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-vogue-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=961705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/961706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=961705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=961705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=961705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}