Saint Laurent and Helmut Lang together for a series of brutalist sculptures

«I’ve been fascinated by Helmut for years. For my generation, he is the ultimate designer of the ’90s. I consider him at the same level as someone like Coco Chanel for the way he brought realness into fashion».

These were the words of Anthony Vaccarello who, in a long interview with The Business of Fashion, told the story of his recent artistic collaboration with the Austrian designer – who retired from the world of fashion in 2005 and now dedicated to the art and poultry farming (sic!) in his long Island retire. The result is a project named Helmut Lang x Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent Rive Droite, a series of brutalist sculptures made from waste materials from the Saint Laurent factory that have been torn into pieces, mixed with resin and poured into aluminium moulds to create a set of tubular sculptures. 

The sculptures are on display in Saint Laurent's boutique on Rue St. Honoré in Paris. But next week they will be moved to the Rive Droite store in Los Angeles. Vaccarello, discussing with Tim Blanks, described them as follows:

«I like those primal hard shapes. Especially associated with Saint Laurent which is so about elegance and so raffiné […] I’m not interested in softness. I like beauty, but when it’s disturbing, not easy».

Vaccarello also referred to a famous episode in the modern mythology of Helmut Lang. When that is, in 2010, the Austrian designer destroyed all his archive of clothes that had survived a fire, chopping it and turning it into tubular sculptures similar to those created for Saint Laurent: 

«I understand what Helmut did, because for me clothes should not be sacré. It’s only cotton, silk, gauze… I like that idea of finishing a period like he did and destroying everything».