Ten years ago Iris Van Herpen founded her eponymous label. The year was 2007, and the Dutch designer was already attracting the attention of the entire profession. A short time later, she would be invited to Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week; a number of critics decried the use of 3D technology in the institution that is couture. Iris Van Herpen definitively ended the debate this week in Paris; her collection of high tech sculptural dresses, some light and airy and some closer to the body, was proof of her ample savoir-faire. With voluminous pleats, her architectural cuts incarnate an haute couture that espouses its own time.
It was within the Cirque Bouglione that the runway took place. This runway was orchestrated to the rhythm of aquatic sounds that set the tone for Iris Van Herpen’s creatures. With the Cirque d’Hiver plunged into complete darkness, suddenly a number of aquariums appeared with men and women in a suspended state around curious musical instruments. Transparence, translucence, biomorphic structures, metal lace, sculpted cotton; Iris Van Herpen brings science and technology together to bring the world a poetic fashion that celebrates the complexion of the terrestrial atmosphere. Her dresses seem to vibrate on the body to redraw its lines; when composed with metal lace, the pieces become geodetic floral sculptures. A collaboration with bio-architect Philip Beesley preceded this impossible feat.
Called “Aeriform”, the 18 looks that composed this haute couture collection moved more than one attendee. Like only fashion can, this poetic and avant-garde exercise reminds us how only interdisciplinary action can bring talent out to its fullest. Movement and lightness abounded, while the fabrics seemed more rigid as Iris Van Herpen’s genius took on dresses composed like spiky columns of velvety silver, laser-cut lace. This fragile, ethereal beauty is just like life on Earth.
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