Helmut Lang

Fashion's most famous recluse quit business school and started designing clothes in 1977, when he couldn't find a T-shirt that he liked. Over the next two decades, Lang established his reputation as a fashion bright spark with his sparse, urban, borderline avant-garde designs. In 1999, Lang surprisingly abandoned his low-profile existence in Vienna and moved to New York where he struck up a partnership with Prada. After alleged disputes, Lang left his own label in 2005 and turned his attention to art.

"I don't set out to be mysterious and perverse.... I love people who have rules but also have the courage to break them when they no longer make sense."