Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
In January 2005 when Helmut Lang left his Prada-owned namesake label and retired to deepest darkest Long Island to make art and raise chickens, the fashion world was left bereft of one of its greatest designer talents. We know some people who, on the day Lang announced his retirement, hung black flags out their windows (true story).
Today, Lang's announcement that he shredded his last remaining 6,000 garments for raw material to use in sculpture feels like pouring salt on a still-tender wound. WWD reports:
About a dozen stalactitelike pieces are to go on display from July 22 at The Fireplace Project, a gallery in East Hampton, N.Y., in a solo exhibition titled “Make it Hard.” According to writer and creative director Neville Wakefield, who is presenting the exhibition, Lang’s floor-to-ceiling columnar forms—made of scraps of fabrics, fur, feathers, leather, plastic, hair and metal from more than 25 years of fashion collections—erase the past and highlight “the transience of our creative endeavors.”· Shred alert [WWD]