Haute Couture’s Avant-Garde: Iris Van Herpen
Inside the world of Iris Van Herpen, the line between architecture and fashion is indistinguishable as the enigmatic designer utilises concepts from both fields to manifest her artistic visions into reality. Collaborating with other creatives for virtually every runway show, every collection brings out Van Herpen’s unique perspective on nature and the fluid environment.
Hailed as one of fashion’s most forward-thinking and avant-garde designers of her time, Van Herpen uses innovative methods (3D printing) and unconventional materials for her garments such as silicone and liquid fabrics. While she has proclaimed that she wants her garments to convey a narrative and evoke emotions in people, using these techniques further emphasizes her point. In many of her collections, art imitates nature. In Syntopia, she studied the movement of birds’ wings to imitate the feathers and soundwave patterns of birds in flight (see below).
Van Herpen’s designs exude a naturalistic aesthetic. Owing to her tendency to derive…
