For the past four years renowned Austrian designer Helmut Lang has been ricocheting between Paris and New York, absorbing each city's unique energy in his consciousness and ultimately in his fashion design.
His decision to show his Spring 98 Men's collection in a art warehouse in the Chelsea district of Manhattan was a sign that Gotham's tough, industrial ideal of chic has become paramount in his mind.
What he was feeling for Spring 98 was a lean, cool survivalist vibe that linked the ultilitarinism of his crisp suits and coats with the quirky individualism of his "padded" vests and see-through windbreakers. With the opening of his 88 Greene Street boutique set to be the party of Women's Fashion Week, NYW hails a talent we have previously touted in these pages as the best designer to emerge from the 90's.