Definitely a fashion genius, Iris Van Herpen have had 17 awards since 2009, including TIME Magazine naming her 3D printed dresses one of the best 50 inventions in 2011. She have had plenty of exhibitions showcasing her collections all over the world. Her experimental collections always seem to be so distinctive and outstanding, evoking feelings of awe. Most of her inspirations came from the natural world, on things like movements of birds, mostly based on the study biology and technologies that would create fascinating effects. Always using fresh materials to work with and challenging the laws of physics, she successfully gives the garments life.
The above collection shows her Spring/Summer 2017 where she studied the imperfections of structures in both the real and digital worlds.
In this collection, Iris Van Herpen studied cymatics, which is an undiscovered theory linking sound vibrations and forms produced on flat surfaces.
In Hacking Infinity, “Iris van Herpen explored the idea of modifying another planet’s biosphere to resemble that of the Earth’s. A cosmic inspiration coming to life in a series of ethereal designs. Inspired partly by mandala forms, the silhouettes adopted spherical forms and played with the transparency of materials. Working still with 3D, Iris van Herpen also developed a material made from stainless and translucent steel, but also from hand-woven textiles for an effect of new volumes.”
© Peter Stigter
I cannot decide which of her collections is my favourite, but I could choose two to put it up here. The first one that I personally love is Voltage: Spring 2013 Couture. As you can tell from the name of the collection, it has something to do with electricity and lightning bolts. It could be observed immediately on the structures and material used for the collection which is absolutely innovative.
Another of my favourite collection is one of the many popular collections, Syntopia: Fall 2018 Couture. Iris Van Herpen’s inspiration for Syntopia in her words were “biology merging with technology”. She also mentioned, “These pieces are not necessarily here and now. They both connect to something that is coming and something that has already come.” Just by looking at the pictures she victoriously evoked movements on the garments even though it is just a flat, two dimensional image.
She will always be one of my inspirations and for this project that is currently ongoing, the textures and material structures would greatly influence my work as I would love to work with undulating dresses that shows the idea of lightweight, and angel-like as inspired from the renaissance paintings. The very evident characteristics observed from many paintings were saints and greater beings that seem to defy gravity. I would love to portray that image in the material choices and structure into my final collection.
references
About. (2019). Retrieved from Iris Van Herpen: https://www.irisvanherpen.com/about
BORRELLI-PERSSON, L. (2013). Iris Van Herpen 2013. Retrieved from Vogue: https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2013-couture/iris-van-herpen
PÉRIER, P. M. (2017). 10 years of couture and extraordinary designs by Iris van Herpen. Retrieved from Vogue: https://www.vogue.fr/fashion/fashion-inspiration/diaporama/iris-van-herpen-haute-couture-fashion-week-10-years-extraordinary-dresses/44338
Verner, A. (2018).Iris Van Herpen 2018. Retrieved from Vogue: https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/fall-2018-couture/iris-van-herpen
Corene Ang 