A resurrection was first attempted in 2007 when it was acquired by Link Theory Holdings (now part of Fast Retailing) from the Prada Group, with Michael and Nicole Colovos hired as creative directors. The design duo buffed away the edginess of the label, sending it down a more contemporary path. They departed in 2014, after which the label was managed by an in-house team until Isabella Burley, the then editor-in-chief of Dazed, was hired as an “editor-in-residence.” Burley tapped Shayne Oliver, the much-lauded Hood By Air founder, in 2017 to design a spring 2018 collection, which was heralded as a great collection by Oliver if not a faithful Helmut Lang offering. Mark Thomas and Thomas Cawson followed in 2019, departing after presenting a spring 2020 collection.
Do’s appointment was the company’s first attempt at leveraging its high-fashion beginnings since Oliver’s one-off. It was tough going. He had to deal with an industry hyper-focused on Lang and his omnipresent archive, together with an impossible-to-satisfy fan base.
What the industry and OG Helmut Lang followers failed to recognize in their criticism of Do’s approach—which did keep the designer’s archive top of mind—is that the Helmut Lang brand is, today, not a founder-led label, but a global brand. Much of what made Helmut Lang ineffably cool at its peak in the ’90s and 2000s is that it remained one of Lang’s most compelling art projects as opposed to what it is now, a product and consumer-first fashion brand. Do’s role was to make it function as a brand in the era of viral products and celebrity dressing and It-bags, which is itself the antithesis of the Helmut Lang ethos.
Do had continued working on his eponymous collection, having moved his shows to Paris since starting at Helmut Lang. Should he choose to return to NYFW, the city will be happy to have him back.