Following the cancellation of HBA‘s fall 2017 Paris Fashion Week presentation, it’s been revealed that head creative and founder Shanyne Oliver is working on a collection for Helmut Lang.
Austrian designer Helmut Lang founded his namesake label in the late ’70s, though he left the label not long after it was acquired by Prada in 2004. It was purchased by Tokyo-based Link Theory Holdings (which is owned by Uniqlo parent company Fast Retailing) in 2006 and is headed up by CEO Andrew Rosen, who also heads up the company’s Theory label.
According to Business of Fashion, the link was made through Dazed editor-in-chief Isabella Burley, who was brought on to help with the creative direction at Helmut Lang while retaining her role at Dazed. It was Burley who recruited Oliver to create a special men’s and women’s collection that will be revealed in September 2017.
The article doesn’t say that Oliver will be a permanent creative, rather that Helmut Lang wants to get back to its “bold” roots and will bring on guest designers to create special, one-off capsules.
As for whether Oliver’s guest role at Helmut points to issues at HBA, a representative for his label said this is not the case. “Shayne is currently focusing his time on the special project with Helmut Lang. As a result, HBA will be continued but is transitioning to accommodate this. We will be releasing more information soon,” said a representative of the label.
At the same time, HBA’s webstore is currently closed and the last time the brand posted on its Instagram account was five weeks ago.
Included in Business of Fashion‘s coverage is news that Helmut lang creative director Alexandre Plokhov has exited the company. Prior to Plokhove, Nicole and Michael Colovos designed both the men’s and women’s lines.
