Charles Frederick WorthCharles Frederick Worth became the founder of the longest running fashion empire. Born in Lincolnshire, England on October 13, 1825, Charles Worth began his life working for a number of cloth or clothing dealers before going to Paris in 1845. Worth then began designing clothes under the fabric company that he worked under by persuading them to open a section specifically for garments. Worth became the head designer for this section and also became the first designer to use a living mannequin to present his clothes. After showing his designs in multiple locations in Europe, Worth opened his own couture house in 1858; but it shut down soon after because of the Franco-Prussian War. Finally able to reestablish his house in 1874, Worth properly started his couture house permanently. During this time, Charles Worth was called the “Father of Haute Couture” and became the first recorded designer of women’s and Men’s apparel. His couture house became the longest lasting house in existence, being over eighty years old before finally closing. Charles Frederick Worth died in Paris, France on March 10, 1895.

ZeitgeistDuring the 1840s in America saw the Mexican-American war over who would take Texas. In fact throughout the 1800s you still see signs of empirical wars over claiming land.

InspirationBeing the first haute couture designer in history, there were not a lot of people to take inspiration from; but Charles Worth’s inspiration instead came from his work as a draper.

Hedi Slimane

Born July 5,1968, Hedi Slimane was appointed as the Collections and Art Director at the house of Yves Saint Laurent in 1997. He left the house in 1999, and was invited to create his own label within the GucciGroup. He was invited to join the Prada Group to design for the Jil Sander label. Instead, he chose to work at Christian Dior, where he became the creative designer for men’s clothing, and designed the line of Dior Homme in 2000. In 2002, the Council of Fashion Designers of America named him the International Designer of the Year in New York. In 2003, he was appointed creative director for Christian Dior men's fragrances, including Eau Noire, Cologne Blanche, Bois d'Argent, Dior homme, and Dior Homme Intense. He also created the first skincare lines for Dior, the "Dermo" system. In July 2007, Slimane left the house of Dior. In an attempt to convince him to stay Dior offered to finance Slimane's own signature line. Slimane rejected their offer in February 2008. He stated on his website that he did not want to lose his creative freedom, sell his name, or give up the control of his own brand. He is expected to debut a line of his own which will include womenswear.

Zeitgeist

Following the 1990s popular fashion of baggy clothing and designs made for older, heavier men, Hedi Slimane came in and changed the silhouette of fashion completely.

Inspirationlimane has a background in furniture design, fragrance, store design, and photography. He is perhaps best known for the slim silhouette of his menswear. In addition to his work as a fashion designer, he has been involved in various other projects, including as editor-in-chief of Libération and designing album covers for artists such as Phoenix and Daft Punk. In 2004, he published "Stage", a collection of his Rock musician photography. He has published several other books of his photography and has contributed writing and photography to many fashion magazines including Vanity Fair.

Rei KawakuboA Japanese fashion designer that founded Comme des Garcons, Rei Kawakubo was born in Tokyo, Japan on October 11, 1942. She is untrained as a fashion designer, but studied fine arts and literature at Keio University. After graduation, Kawakubo worked in a textile company and began working as a freelance stylist in 1967.In 1973, she established her own company, Comme des Garçons Co. Ltd in Tokyo and opened up her first boutique in Tokyo in 1975. Starting out with women's clothes, Kawakubo added a men's line in 1978. Three years later, she started presenting her fashion lines in Paris each season, opening up a boutique in Paris in 1982. Rei likes to have input in all the various aspects of her business, rather than just focussing on clothes and accessories. She is greatly involved in graphic design, advertising and shop interiors believing that all these things are a part of one vision and are inextricably linked.

ZeitgeistThe 1970s marked a time of political awareness in the western world, which shows in the experimental fashion culture that Rei Kawakubo created. The Vietnam War was the highlight in the west and it was also the first war to ever be televised. This decade also marked the age of space exploration and the successful moon landings for the United States. The 1980s fed off of this and took it to even more extremes in popular culture. Legendary musical talents like Madonna and Michael Jackson began popularity in this decade, and it also saw the rise of hard rock, heavy metal, and glam metal.

InspirationRei Kawakubo specialises in anti-fashion, austere, sometimes-deconstructed garments. During the 1980s, her garments were primarily in black, dark grey or white. The materials were often draped around the body and featured frayed, unfinished edges along with holes and a general asymmetrical shape. Challenging the established notions of beauty she created uproar at her debut Paris fashion show where journalists labeled her clothes 'Hiroshima chic' amongst other things. Since the late 1980s her colour palette has grown somewhat.

Junya WatanabeBorn in Fukushima, Japan in 1961 as Hybta Watanabe, Junya Watanabe is one of the most prolific fashion designers living today. In 1984 he graduated from the prestigious Bunka Fashion College in Tokyo and began his apprenticeship at Comme des Garcons under Rei Kawakubo right away. In 1987 Watanabe was promoted to chief designer or the Tricot Knitwear line at Comme des Garcons, and in 1992 he began his own line under Comme des Garcons called Junya Watanabe. 1993 marked his first show designing for Comme des Garcons and it showed in Paris. Watanabe continued designing clothing throughout the 1990s and well into the 2000s. In 2001 he became known for his women’s line named “Techno Couture” and from then on that is what his design style has been referred to as. Today he has his own men’s line to accompany the women’s, which is also doing very well.

ZeitgeistJunya Watanbe started in the 1990s and he still designs for Comme des Garcons today. Following the end of the 1980s Japan came out of thirty years of a booming economy straight into a recession. Japan’s population also went on a steady decline throughout the 1990s and into the 2000s. The fashion of the 90s transitioned zen or hippie type clothing into more individuality and outrageous clothing styles. The 1990s also saw the rise of the Internet, starting to become more commercial and user friendly.

InspirationJunya Watanabe draws a lot of inspiration from his mentor, Rei Kawakubo. Both designers have an infatuation for deconstructing garments and putting them back together into something different, and you can see extreme similarities between their works.

Martin MargielaMaisn Margiela is an extremely secretive and successful fashion designer that studied at Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts. After graduation in 1980 he worked as a freelance designer for five years. Between 1985 and 1987 he worked for Jean Paul Gaultier, before showing his first collection under his own label in 1989. Between 1997 to 2003 he became, despite his non-traditional design, the creative director of the Hermès women's line. During the 1980s, the Japanese avantgardists, with Rei Kawakubohad turned the fashion scene upside-down with their eccentric and ground-breaking designs. Martin Margiela and the Antwerp Six would carry on the work, revolting against the luxurious fashion world with garments of oversized proportions such as long arms, and with linings, seams and hems on the outside. The concept of deconstruction is important for the understanding of Martin Margiela's fashion statement. Throughout his career, Martin Margiela has maintained an extremely low profile. He has never had his picture taken and remains backstage after his shows. Margiela's brand was acquired by the Diesel brand in 2002 and industry insiders quoted in the article suggested that Martin Margiela may desire to leave due to creative differences, or simply, "... a desire to enjoy his life outside the insistent glare of the fashion world."

ZeitgeistThe height of Margiela’s career occurred during the 1990s, which is known as the dawn of the Information Age as well as the current Post Modern Age. The biggest innovation was in technology, like portable electronics, personal computers, and especially video gaming devices. Also, compared to past decades, the 1990s was considered a relatively peaceful time for the United States with Bill Clinton as President. The technological boom of the 1990s also continued into the 2000s without losing pace, only becoming faster.

InspirationMartin Margiela gets a huge amount of his inspiration from the Japanese avant-gardists that took over the fashion scene in the 1980s, specifically Rei Kawakubo’s technique of deconstruction. Along with the Antwerp Six, Margiela’s designs are considered very radical and anti-dress.

Ann DemeulmeesterAnn Demeulemeester was born in Waregem, a city in the Flemish province of Belgium in 1959, and later lived in the city of Bruges. Her father, a chicory professor, and her mother both currently live in Waregem. Initially, Demeulemeester showed no interest in fashion. She attended art school for three years, where she discovered her fascination with people and portraiture, which led her to begin thinking about clothing attire. From this, Ann went on to study fashion design at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp from 1978 to 1981. In 1986, Demeulemeester, along with her fellow students from the Antwerp Royal Academy, went to London to showcase their collections. As a result, she is often referred to as a member of the “Antwerp Six”, the radical and distinctive Belgian designers of the 1980s. This group of avant-garde designers is known for their decontructivist styles of creating untraditional clothing lines. Despite being approached by major fashion houses (names of which she refuses to divulge), Ann Demeulemeester emphasizes both design and financial independence, and chooses to remain with her own line. She opened her own shop in Antwerp in 1999. Her collections are now sold in over 30 countries worldwide.

ZeitgeistThe height of Ann Demeulmeester’s career occurred during the 1990s, which is known as the dawn of the Information Age as well as the current Post Modern Age. The biggest innovation was in technology, like portable electronics, personal computers, and especially video gaming devices. Also, compared to past decades, the 1990s was considered a relatively peaceful time for the United States with Bill Clinton as President. The technological boom of the 1990s also continued into the 2000s without losing pace, only becoming faster.

InspirationAnn Demeulemeester worked with the artist Jim Dine, and draws much of her inspiration from the androgynous singer, Patti Smith. Currently, she is working on a clothing line inspired by Jackson Pollock. She is also a part of the legendary Antwerp Six that drew a lot of their inspiration from 1980s experimental Japanese designers.

Jil SanderJil Sander, born in Wesselburen, Schleswig-Holstein, grew up with her mother and later studied textile design in Krefeld from where she graduated as a textile engineer in 1963. Having spent two years as an exchange student at University of California, Los Angeles, she worked as a fashion editor at German women's magazine Petra before opening her first boutique in a Hamburg suburb in 1967, at age 24. She started out selling fashion designed by Thierry Mugler or Sonia Rykiel and also a few of her own designs. And, with few ups and downs, she founded her eponymous fashion house, Jil Sander GmbH in 1968. Showing her collection in Paris in 1975 proved a complete failure, though. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the fashion world was dominated by lavish, colorful and glitzy Dynasty-style designs by the likes of Claude Montana with his broad-shouldered leather look, Jil Sander's minimalist collections, with a focus on fabric quality came close to a revolution in the fashion world and were not accepted next to the Parisian catwalks. Her style only started gaining attention in the 1990s. Jil Sander AG went public in 1989 and was sold to

shareholders on the Frankfurt stock exchange among the first fashion houses to venture on such a step. Sander used the new capital to expand in Asia and North America. Her success overseas resulted in expensively furnished flagship stores in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Taipei among a number of others. Michael Gabellini was commissioned to design the showrooms as well as office spaces in Hamburg. Sander personally oversaw the design of her stores and strict guidelines were implemented for the sales staff on how to behave and where to stand in the boutiques.

Zeitgeist

Although Jil Sander started her work in the mid 1970s, she was not very recognized until her designs in the 1980s and 1990s. The 1970s marked a time of political awareness in the western world. The Vietnam War was the highlight in the west and it was also the first war to ever be televised. This decade also marked the age of space exploration and the successful moon landings for the United States. The 1980s fed off of this and took it to even more extremes in popular culture. Legendary musical talents

like Madonna and Michael Jackson began popularity in this decade, and it also saw the rise of hard rock, heavy metal, and glam metal.

Inspiration

Sander's trademark look, a contemporary, somewhat odd, New Look, originally intended for women conquering executive positions in the 1980s, was that of a precisely cut pantsuit, a slim blouse and a form-fitting coat made of luxurious fabrics in plain grey, beige, blue, black or white. Sander's eponymous fashion label still exists today but has been carried on without her involvement since 2004.

Rick OwensBorn and raised in Porterville, California, Owens studied fine arts at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles for two years before dropping out and takingpattern-making and draping courses at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College leading to work in the garment industry doing knock offs of designer clothing. His own label, begun in 1994 found a following, selling exclusively to Charles Gallay, a pioneering Los Angeles retailer who kept Owens in business for several years. He began to receive attention when an image of Kate Moss shot by Corinne Day appeared in Vogue Paris, featuring one of Owens' fitted distressed leather jackets. He showed his first runway collection in September 2002 during New York Fashion Week.  The opening of his first shop in the Palais Royal, in Paris, also debuted his furniture range as well as his various clothing lines from the younger and more affordable RickOwensLilies and the denim range named DRKSHDW, to the very exclusive fur collection Palais Royal. Since then, stores have opened in New York, London, Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong.

ZeitgeistLaunching his own label, Rick Owens, in 1994, he created huge success in the late 1990s and extending to the present without showing signs of slowing down. Globalization, which had intensified in the post-Cold War 1990s, continued to influence the world in the 2000s. The Internet is one of the prime contributors to globalization, making it possible for people to interact with other people, express ideas, introduce others to different cultures and backgrounds, use goods and services, sell and buy online, research and learn about anything, along with experiencing the whole world without having to leave home. Most of the innovation with the Internet came from the United States, but even with this the global economy started to drop rapidly.

Inspiration His iconic designs are very drapey and consist of a lot of leather and torn cloth. What is confusing is his beginning as a brand knock-off producer. The originality in his work does not reflect his work trying to make ends meet.

Raf SimonsRaf Simons, born January 12, 1968, is a Belgian fashion designer. He studied Industrial design, but after a few years of self-study, he became a menswear designer in 1995. Initially, he worked with Walter Van Beirendonck in Paris, where he was exposed to the work of Martin Margiela and Jean-Paul Gaultier. His collections, menswear only, are strongly influenced by youth culture albeit in an indirect way. He often combines strongly cut classic menswear with baggy streetwear-influenced items. Simons' style has been described as highly influential. He is cited as being one of the most important innovators in contemporary menswear by the international press. In summer 2005 he was appointed as creative director for the Jil Sander label. His menswear line, "Raf by Raf Simons", was launched in 2006. His Fall/Winter collection has been recognised by many as one of the most impressive lines of the season.

ZeitgeistRaf Simons started to design during the 1990s and as time went on he became more recognized in international fashion as a leading figure. The 1990s are known as the dawn of the Information Age as well as the current Post Modern Age. The biggest innovation was in technology, like portable electronics, personal computers, and especially video gaming devices. Also, compared to past decades, the 1990s was considered a relatively peaceful time for the United States with Bill Clinton as President. The technological boom of the 1990s also continued into the 2000s without losing pace, only becoming faster.

InspirationHis collections strongly influenced by youth culture albeit in an indirect way. He often combines strongly cut classic menswear with baggy streetwear-influenced items. Simons' style has been described as highly influential. He is cited as being one of the most important innovators in contemporary menswear by the international press.

Gareth PughGareth Pugh, born August 31, 1981, is an English fashion designer. At 14, Pugh began working as a costume designer for the English National Youth Theatre. He started his fashion education at City of Sunderland College and finished his degree in Fashion Design at Central Saint Martins in 2003. His final collection at St. Martins, which used balloons to accentuate models' joints and limbs, a technique that would become one of his trademarks, attracted the attention of the senior fashion editor of Dazed & Confused magazine, who placed one of his designs on the magazine's cover shortly thereafter. Pugh's solo premiere was in London's Fall 2006 fashion week; he has since showed his Spring 2007 and Autumn 2007 collections there. Though he has received significant acclaim in contemporary fashion circles, Pugh claimed in March 2007 that he had yet to sell a single dress and that he struggled to make ends meet. Pugh's shows have continued to draw critical praise. He currently lives and works in Paris.

ZeitgeistGareth Pugh is a very recent appearance in fashion and started designing in the mid 2000s and well into the present. Globalization, which had intensified in the post-Cold War 1990s, continued to influence the world in the 2000s. The Internet is one of the prime contributors to globalization, making it possible for people to interact with other people, express ideas, introduce others to different cultures and backgrounds, use goods and services, sell and buy online, research and learn about anything, along with experiencing the whole world without having to leave home. Most of the innovation with the Internet came from the United States, but even with this the global economy started to drop rapidly.

InspirationPugh's collections are autobiographical rather than referential, and draw inspiration from Britain's extreme club scene. Pugh's trademark is his experimentation with form and volume. Klaus Nomi has also been suggested as an influence on Pugh.

Thom BrowneBorn in 1965, Thom Browne grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he graduated from William Allen High School. He then attended the University of Missouri and a transfer to University of Notre Dame, where he received a degree in economics. He was also a member of the swim team. Following an attempt at acting in Los Angeles, Browne moved to New York City in 1997 for a job as a salesman in Giorgio Armani’s showroom. Browne was picked up by Club Monaco, a brand of the Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation, to lead its creative development team. He worked with the American fashion designer Ralph Lauren in this capacity. On September 8, 2006, Brooks Brothers announced its partnership with Browne as part of a guest designer program to create and distribute a 50-piece men and women’s high-end collection, called Black Fleece by Brooks Brothers. In 2008, Browne teamed up with the French sportswear company and down apparel specialist Moncler to design their men's top line Moncler Gamme Bleu. Browne spent several years at Club Monaco leading its design department before launching his own label.

ZeitgeistThom Browne’s beginning being a designer in the late 1990s was a huge time in technology and globalization. Globalization, which had intensified in the post-Cold War 1990s, continued to influence the world in the 2000s. The Internet is one of the prime contributors to globalization, making it possible for people to interact with other people, express ideas, introduce others to different cultures and backgrounds, use goods and services, sell and buy online, research and learn about anything, along with experiencing the whole world without having to leave home. Most of the innovation with the Internet came from the United States.

InfluenceWith the popularization of more radical and technologically inspired fabrics in high fashion, Thom Browne stuck to roots in a more dressed up manner. The rise in technology in the 1990s and 2000s did not deter Thom Browne from creating a classic aesthetic. Instead he kept true to classic menswear, which includes a lot of suit and tie apparel.

Tom FordTom Ford was born August 27, 1961 in Austin, Texas, to realtors Tom Ford and Shirley Burton. He spent his early life in the suburbs of Houston, Texas, and in San Marcos, outside Austin; his family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, when he was 11. In Santa Fe, he entered St. Michael's High School and later moved to Santa Fe Preparatory School, from which he graduated in 1979. Ford left Santa Fe at age 16, when he enrolled at Bard College at Simon's Rock, but quickly dropped out. He then moved to New York City to study art history at New York University. Ford dropped out of NYU after only a year, preferring to concentrate on acting in television commercials; at one time, he was in 12 national advertising campaigns simultaneously. Ford then began studying interior architecture at The New School's famous art and design college, Parsons The New School for Design. In 1994, Ford was promoted to creative director. In his first year at the helm, he was credited with putting the glamour back into fashion introducing Halston-style velvet hipsters, skinny satin shirts and car-finish metallic patent boots. When Gucci acquired the house of Yves Saint Laurent, Ford was named the creative director of that label as well. During his time as

Creative Director for YSL, Ford won numerous Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards. Like his work at Gucci, Ford was able to catapult the classic fashion house back into the mainstream. In April 2005, Ford announced the creation of the TOM FORD brand.

ZeitgeistA lot of Tom Ford’s designs are seen in the mid 1990s to his present day fashion brand. During this time in America there was a huge boom in technology, specifically with the rise of the Internet. But also during his time was America’s War on Terror, which caused huge controversy within the United States. The Economy’s drop did not help this either.

InspirationFord relied on films for inspiration. If a film captured his attention, he would watch it over and over again, trying to figure out the mood so he could capture it in a design. Ford also traveled extensively, hoping to spot the next new trend. He sent his staff to flea markets around the world.

Karl LagerfeldKarl Lagerfeld, born Karl Otto Lagerfeldt on September 10, 1933 in Hamburg, is a German fashion designer, artist and photographer based in Paris, France. He has claimed he was born in 1938; however it has been reported that he was actually born in 1933. Karl Lagerfeld moved to Paris in 1953. Initially he worked as a draftsman for fashion houses. At the time, in fashion, drawings were preferred over photographs. Lagerfeld is able to recap any costume style in European history, for example explaining collar styles used in 1710 Germany, as he has demonstrated in a German television series in the 1980s. In 1958, after three years at Balmain, he moved to Jean Patou where he designed two haute couture collections a year for five years. In 1963, he began designing for Tiziani, a Roman couture house founded that year by Evan Richards of Jacksboro, Texas. It began as couture and then branched out into ready-to-wear. Lagerfeld had begun to freelance for French fashion house Chloe in 1964, at first designing a few pieces a season. As more and more pieces were incorporated, he would soon design the entire collection. Karl Lagerfeld has been immortalized in many forms: pins, shirts, dolls, and more. In 2009, Tra Tutti began selling Karl Lagermouse and Karl Lagerfelt, mini Karls in the form of mice and finger puppets respectively.

ZeitgeistKarl Lagerfeld has been an extremely well known designer through out the late 1950s even up until the present day, but his highlighted years are the late 1960s to the early 1980s. In the Western world, social progressive values that began in the 1960s, such as increasing political awareness and political and economic liberty of women, continued to grow. The hippie culture, which started in the latter half of the 1960s, waned by the early 1970s and faded towards the middle part of the decade, which involved opposition to the Vietnam War, opposition to nuclear weapons, the advocacy of world peace, and hostility to the authority of government and big business. The environmentalist movement began to increase dramatically in this period.

InspirationIn order to create his vision, Karl Lagerfeld took inspiration from paintings and novels and even from countries like his Russian themed designs for Chanel.

Phillip LimPhillip Lim, born 1973 in Thailand, is a Cambodian-American fashion designer of Chinese ancestry. He was awarded the 2007 Council of Fashion Designers of America Emerging Talent in Womenswear award for his work as creative director of 3.1 Phillip Lim. He worked at the label Development from 2000 to 2004, and has been the head of 3.1 Phillip Lim which launched in the fall of 2005 to present. After Graduating from Cal State Long beach in 1997, Phillip Lim assisted adeli for a year and a half, but left to become cofounder and head designer for the Los Angeles based label Development. Four years later he moved to New York and with the help of his friend and business partner, Wen Khou, he established his own label, 3.1 phillip lim.

ZeitgeistPhillip Lim is considered to be a more modern designer with beginnings in the late 1990s up to the present day. Globalization, which had intensified in the post-Cold War 1990s, continued to influence the world in the 2000s. The Internet is one of the prime contributors to globalization, making it possible for people to interact with other people, express ideas, introduce others to different cultures and backgrounds, use goods and services, sell and buy online, research and learn about anything, along with experiencing the whole world without having to leave home. Most of the innovation with the Internet came from the United States, but even with this the global economy started to drop rapidly.

InspirationDuring his earlier years in design Phillip Lim was an assistant to Katayone Adeli. A lot of his clothes are considered to be very fashion forward without the ridiculous pricing, and his brand has designed around that.

Neil BarrettNeil Barrett (born Neil Barrett Barber in 1965 in Devon, England) is an English fashion designer, based in Milan, Italy. Both Barrett's grandfather and great grandfather were master tailors, inciting an early interest in tailoring. Following his graduation from the Central Saint Martin's School of Art and Design, Barrett earned his Master’s degree in men's fashion design at the Royal College of Art in London. His designs caught the attention Gucci, where he began his professional career. Working in Florence for Gucci in the early 1990s, Barrett gained commercial and industrial experience and was quickly promoted to senior menswear designer. After five successful years, he presented a project to Prada, proposing the launch of the company's first designer menswear collection. He gained his reputation and built his business around minimalist menswear.

ZeitgeistBeing a high-end fashion designer in England in the late 1990s and 2000s, Neil Barrett created in a time of high economy. The institutions, connections and technologies that emerged or were redefined earlier would subsequently in this decade benefit many countries, in particular China and India. However, in other parts of the world such progress failed to address ongoing struggles with modernity, most notably characterized by the rise of al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups.

InspirationNeil Barrett draws a lot of his designs with the innovative fabrics that he uses in mind. Barrett takes what he learned from being in Gucci and Prada a put it into his own brand, which is currently doing well in Asia.

Helmut LangHelmut Lang, born March 10, 1956, Vienna, is an Austrian artist who lives and works in New York and on Long Island. Lang established his name-stake trademark in 1978 and presented his first international presentation at Centre Georges Pompidou in 1986, and has since his retirement from fashion in 2005, continued to work as an artist. Lang introduced unconventional materials into the urban uniform and by repositioning the perspectives of utility and modernity defined the silhouette of the 1990s and early 2000s. He broke away from the runway show-as-spectacle in the height of the 1980s opulence and was the first to ever stream his collection online, redefining how fashion is communicated. As one of the most important designers of our times, his work left an undeniable imprint on contemporary culture and his influence continues to reverberate among the fashion community today. Lang’s seamless relationship with art has included collaborations with artists Jenny Holzer and Louise Bourgeois. His recent works explore abstract sculptural forms and physical arrangements and space beyond the limitations of the human body. Future exhibitions of Lang’s art will take place at MAK, Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art in Vienna, the Deste

Foundation for Contemporary Art in Athens. MAKE IT HARD, an exhibition consisting of sculptures made of shredded clothes from Helmut Lang's archives, opened on July 22nd and will run through August 8th, 2011 at The Fireplace Project in East Hampton.

ZeitgeistHelmut Lang designed from 1986 until he retired from the fashion world in 2005. The '90s is often considered the true dawn of the Information Age. Though info-age technologies pre-date the '80s, it was not until the late 1980s and the 1990s that they became widely used by the general public. The 1990s is often considered the end of Modernity and the dawn of the current postmodern age. Living standards and democratic governance generally improved in many areas of the world, notably East Asia, much of Eastern Europe, Latin America, and South Africa. The economies and living standards of some countries such as South Korea and Ireland improved to such an extent that they were considered 1st World nations by the decades end.

InspirationAs one of the most important designers of our times, his work left an undeniable imprint on contemporary culture and his influence continues to reverberate among the fashion community today.