Helmut Lang’s utilitarian, kinky, slinky style changed fashion in ‘90s, but more than just dictate trends, the Austrian designer also changed patterns of marketing and communications. He was the first major European design to decamp for New York, which established New York Fashion Week as the first stop on fashion’s bi-annual world tour.

He was also the first to send a digital lookbook in 1998, when he distributed images of his Fall 1998 collection online and mailed CD-Roms to editors. Today, the Helmut Lang brand is celebrating one of its lesser-known innovations: the taxi ad.

In 1998, Lang became the first fashion designer to advertise on New York City taxis. Sounds simple enough, but remember, 1998 was a time before Taxi TV (and before taxis even took credit cards). In the almost two-decades since, dozens of other fashion houses have taken up the method as a form of communication. On Monday, December 4, Lang will return to the taxi, too, when a fleet of 275 New York City taxicabs hit the road with Helmut Lang adverts on top.

• Helmut Lang discovered taxi advertising for the fashion industry