Exploring the impact of Helmut Lang on todays's streetwear Five fashion moments by which the Austrian designer has anticipated the hottest street trends

Before streetwear became a celebrated trendy phenomenon, the luxury fashion of the most important worldwide shows had already built the foundations on which some of the most interesting today's trends have arisen. 

If apparently streetwear and glamorous magazines fashion seem to have nothing in common, you're wrong. These two sides of the same coin have combined their ways in recent years and created a lasting, fruitful partnership. Fashion has always kept its eye on urban, underground imaginary, while streetwear has always played with some luxury status symbols. So, it was inevitable that this two universe would meet each other to create a perfect union. 

Among the several pioneers who have anticipated this union, one, in particular, emerges for his innovation and foresight, namely Helmut Lang. Despite the Austrian fashion designer has left the helm of his namesake brand for over ten years, his work continues to inspire the modern streetwear. Considered one of the first "minimalistic" fashion designer, Helmut Lang's clothes were basic, "essential", but with a strong urban attitude, in which silk and nylon matched together, and where high-quality jackets covered mesh shirts and tank who showed nipples – already in 2004 –, making a meeting place for runways and streetwear.

“You can definitely see Helmut’s influence today in everything really. He changed the idea of what luxury is. He looked at everything, from military to how people were already dressing on streets to utility wear and uniforms” David Casavant said to Quartz.com, a fashion clothing collector who boasts a large stock of vintage Helmut Lang pieces.

Still today his echo resonates in the most interesting brands of the moment, from Kanye West to Hood By Air, but also Balmain, Rick Owens and Céline. To celebrate Helmut Lang's creative genius, here are the 5 fashion moments by which the Austrian fashion designer has made the contemporary fashion history. 

#1 Bullet-proof vest

Appeared during FW1997, that bullet-proof vest made an aesthetic revolution for fashion – "copied" by Kanye West for his YEEZY Season 1 collection.