After using 3D printing technology to create her last collection Voltage, the Dutch designer is again using her couture as a laboratory. By collaborating with architect Isaie Bloch, she’s put a technology made for human organ prototypes at her art’s disposition. Indeed, her creations come out as veritable sculptures. The garment becomes a mere pretext to the ideas, the techniques; in short, it’s a vehicle for the imagination.
Like a cocoon with its volume, the sleeves, like the inverted wings of this iridescent dress what with its metallic effects, dislodge the lines of the female anatomy. The piece seems to be made of laser-cut scales; it belongs neither to ready-to-wear nor to haute couture. Iris Van Herpen’s creations take on their meaning in the purest of avant-gardism. Also noteworthy from the runway show, a silicone fur coat where birds extricate out from the shoulders…
By observing these pieces, one is struck by a subtle and precise impression that evokes the creative disorder of the designer’s mentor, Alexander McQueen. In a unique style of its own, artisanal savoir-faire patiently espouses technology; Iris Van Harpen works on the fabrics, perfects the substance, to end up making clothing into a call for transformation.
Leave a Reply