In celebration of our commitment to champion pre-loved fashion as part of Project Earth, our initiative that explores more sustainable ways to shop, we’ve called in the finest vintage specialists we know to bring us an exclusive collection of rare Helmut Lang pieces designed by none other than the man himself.

We caught up with Gill Linton – founder of vintage platform Byronesque – and Michael Kardamakis – founder of vintage specialists ENDYMA and owner of the largest Helmut Lang archive in the world – to discuss their passion for quality, their modern takes on vintage, and why Lang remains one of fashion’s greatest visionaries.

Tell us about when your love affair with vintage began.

Gill: When fashion started to be more commercial, I felt a real lament for the creativity of the ’80s and ’90s, and I couldn’t find vintage that wasn’t just thrift or bourgeois, red-carpet gowns. No one was talking to me with any level of taste or authority.

Michael: I started buying vintage fashion while at university. I couldn’t afford the things I saw in shops, and I was eager to understand the work of different designers. I would take a good look at the pieces, research them, try to date them and sell them on. I acquired a decent amount of knowledge about fashion design and eventually founded ENDYMA. Before I knew it, fashion houses were buying my garments for their research. So, vintage has been my passion for a while, but it was also a way for me to enter the fashion industry as an art history graduate with no foreseeable future in the arts. Sourcing vintage was a way to learn about what makes good clothes good.

How did you two meet?

Gill: I’m pretty sure I stalked Michael for years! I’ve been trying to persuade him to sell his Lang collection for a long time. We’ve worked on projects together but nothing as encompassing or important as this Selfridges collaboration.

Michael: I met Gill online around five years ago. She was interested in ENDYMA’s Helmut Lang archive. Since then, she has visited ENDYMA’s showroom in Athens, and we have collaborated on numerous projects across the world. This latest presentation with Selfridges is the culmination of years of discussions and experiments, and I am so proud of the result.

Have you always worked with vintage clothing?

Gill: I’ve worked with fashion brands from the high street to high-end luxury – I was the person hired to help them stand out from how banal and generic fashion was becoming. I was always left frustrated at how creatively risk-averse and wasteful the industry is, so decided to do something myself.
I started Byronesque with our Creative Director, Justin Westover, who has a photography and art background. We’re a good fit to provoke, and hopefully inspire, people to wear things for a long time. Just like Michael, I wanted to partner with passionate experts who care about clothes, the people who designed them, and the stories that come from a different era.

Michael: I studied art history, and most of my research back then was devoted to clothes. When my BA degree was over, I realised I had little going on other than my interest in fashion. I never cared about runway shows [or] iconic press campaigns – it was always about the objects and their design. I think this is what has made ENDYMA’s Helmut Lang archive an interesting resource today – the obsession with details.

How has Byronesque reinvented shopping for second-hand designer pieces?

Gill: We don’t think or behave like a vintage brand. We believe that just because it’s old, doesn’t mean it’s good. We start at punk, but our edit is ruthless. We tell stories and sell clothes from the margins. And our present is more lasting than today’s landfills of imitations.

Michael: Byronesque has definitely raised the standard of vintage shopping. Shopping for vintage doesn’t have to be thrifty, time consuming or a gamble. Not everyone has the energy to plough through thousands of worn items, in questionable shapes, to find that one good thing that feels right. Byronesque’s curation process is ‘all killer, no filler’. This allows customers to cut to the chase, knowing that they can get an iconic object that is certified legitimate and in great condition.

Where do your source your pieces? Any surprising stories?

Gill: We have the largest network of contemporary-vintage buyers and sellers from around the world, which means we’re tapped into a pretty epic collective archive of clothes. It took us a while, but with integrity and sticking to a ruthless edit, we are lucky that people and their collections now come to us.

Michael: Sourcing is pretty much my main occupation, and the process has taken me years to develop. Sometimes it can be as easy as getting an email from someone doing a clear out, while other times I have travelled to random towns and found myself in some rather awkward situations – but the end usually justifies the means!
Some of the finest objects in ENDYMA’s collection have come from people who worked at Helmut Lang back in the good old days, which gave them access to all sorts of exciting one-offs and samples. The black leather jacket on offer at Selfridges is one example of such a unique object.

Why do you think Helmut Lang was a visionary?

Gill: His contrary approach to the trash-glam style of the time that made NYC cool again. He might not see it like this, but he somehow flipped the fashion machine with poise and precision detail.

Michael: Helmut Lang was the most influential designer of his decade. He was the first designer to present his work digitally, doing an online presentation instead of a show for autumn/winter 1998. He was also the first fashion designer to change continent ([moving from] Vienna to New York) and one of the first to show his men’s and women’s collections in the same show, using many of his friends and collaborators as models.
From a design point of view, he created unisex clothing that rejected conventional notions of gender, occasion and functionality. His work shaped trends and dominated the industry for ages. He integrated traditional men’s tailoring with his cutting-edge womenswear. He looked at the everyday and the mundane for inspiration, using work uniforms, contemporary militaria and Austrian folklore as his starting points. He was not afraid to mix high and low: technical nylon with the most expensive leather, tailoring with deconstructed streetwear. 

You’re the experts – tell us, what are his signature pieces?

Gill: I think everything he did was a signature because he somehow broke the mould every season. For us, the obscure peepholes and straps matter most.

Michael: Translucent nylons and silk organzas, unconventional ways of revealing the body, sports fabrics in couture shapes and couture materials in simple basics. Residues of military function abstracted to become unconventional points of interest, formal tailoring that looks somewhere between boldly contemporary and conservatively traditional, confidence in simplicity. Clothes that are iconic without being too loud.

Which pieces in the Lang collection at Selfridges are you most excited by and why?

Gill: Other than the styles that haven’t been obviously copied, 1995 is a very personal year for me. I spent hours in Selfridges buying every version of the extreme turn-up trousers. In hindsight, I wish I’d bought the layered pieces with peepholes and cutaways from spring/summer 2004.

Michael: It is very difficult for me to pick certain things, as I am such a fanatic of Lang’s work. I absolutely love the classicism of the tailoring or the retro effortlessness of the sportswear. We have some fantastic deconstructed tops and dresses, which really take Lang’s concepts to another level. Then there are the denim pieces, which feel familiar and completely unconventional at the same time. What I appreciate about Lang is that his creations feel completely his own but can appeal to a very diverse audience. We have pieces to wear in the boardroom and the wildest clubwear.

Why do you think it is more important than ever to treasure the items we have in our wardrobes?

Gill: We live in a culture of extreme waste and not enough creativity, where lip service to sustainability gets more headlines than the pursuit of longevity. We hope to inspire people to buy unique things and wear them for a long time, which is very different from selling clothes that are classic and timeless.

Michael: In my view, good fashion design is well-made design. A beautiful idea needs to be constructed in a way that lasts – otherwise, it risks being an empty gesture. Well-made and -designed clothing not only lasts longer but also looks good for longer and won’t look dated after a couple of seasons. People can sometimes mistake latest for best, and this is something I stand against in my work as a collector and archivist. My approach is about pressing pause and appreciating the richness of what is already around. Being cool in the latest thing feels like a rat race that I want no part in.