Resuscitate Helmut Lang?

[tricotineacetat]

The one thing I will say is that I hold in high regard that Helmut Lang was a fairly accessible brand with a lot of pieces priced affordably enough so that people could buy into it and without the idea of that tarnishing the image of the brand.

The outerwear was great and affordable if you stuck with a Crombie coat in moleskin that could cost as little as 600€ in 2004, whereas a pair of pumps with metal toe tip from the SS'04 runway cost around 260€ if I remember correctly. You had to know what was worth investing in but by the time we had figured that out, Helmut had already left and all that was left to but was one half-finished collection for AW'05 after which Prada shuttered the whole thing.

 

[nunova]

yeah, the reseller/grailed market has killed my general love for this brand. who is buying archive pieces at 1000% markup?

I out myself as younger member out there... I really got interested in Lang (and I feel his work shaped my taste the most, the basis of it despite it changing later on) as teen which was right around time when his work started getting popular again in mid to late 2010s. I could see how oversaturated it got very quickly, how the "archive" types proliferated (and how many of them are former hypebeasts lol). I still remember how many pieces weren't that expensive 2nd hand but back then I didn't had money, it barely made sense for me to collect any vintage designer and by time I started working and my interest in dressing myself got bigger rather being just a fashion nerd overanalyzing magazines and archival coverage... the ship has sailed. Everyone got into his work (but also Jil's) and everyone started namedropping him while only knowing selected, cherry picked on social media pieces by him, exact same ones during past 10 years no matter the platform. I never really see anyone talking as much about women's suits which were brilliant (I'd love to own the exact one modelled by Stella Tennant in F/W1995 show by the way) for example.

I'll always regret not buying that one women's coat I found for less than 100eur on Vinted ages ago, which I'm sure was from very early 00s. But at this point I lost interest in collecting anything vintage designer, as everything got oversaturated to a point that I prefer to make my clothes myself...

I wonder if it has more to do with an overall decline in quality of product over the years, because I could say the same about some Dolce & Gabbana underwear I bought 25 years ago whose seams and material performance have not seen a notable decline - For a garment wornand washed as much as that, that's really stupendous.

By comparison I can sadly say ALL of my Helmut Lang cotton t-shirts made during the Prada years have either shrunk or twisted from a regular 30*C mashine wash cycle.

I'd blame the lower quality of fabrics over all as it really starts with it, the raw materials definitely are of lower quality now and lot of it also is related to how fabric is finished off too. I had enough of vintage clothing or just even fabrics in my hands over the years and difference is noticeable, even lower end clothing wasn't as bad as it is right now. They are now more flimsy, suit weight wools especially have less body than before.