IRIS VAN HERPEN

About Iris Van Herpen

Iris Van Herpen graduated from the Artez institute of Arts in Arnhem Netherlands, in 2006. After having interned for Alexander McQueen as well as several other prestigious designers, Iris launched her own line in 2007 naming it Iris Van Herpen. Her unique and ‘avant gardiste’ sense of style has drawn attention from the most sought out publications in the industry. In addition to all the covers Iris has landed, she is also credited to several awards. Iris’ recognition reached its climax in 2011 with her entry at the Chambre Syndical de la Haute Couture. Iris’s key words are creativity and innovation. Her designs are convoyed with her personal signature and style which she acquired by focusing on traditional craftsmanship’s involving a high level of handwork and demiurgic techniques.

The innovative spirit of her style is enthused by a combination of her creative inspirations along with the radical materials that she applies to her work. Iris is especially drawn to leather, synthetic boat rigging and Plexiglas; resulting in sculptural effects with an astonishing visual impact. Iris considers fashion as a form of self-expression. Each of her outfits conducts a singular narration that defines her spirit and state of mind. Iris Van Herpen is once again awakened by a world of microscopic organisms, one that is complex and incredibly diverse in terms of shape, form and structure which she is presenting with her new collection called, 'Hybrid-Holism'.

This season, Iris' inspiration is yet another scientific experiment, but this time her focus is on Metabolic Materials. Iris invested a particular interest on a project introduced by the architect Philip Beesley entitled Holozolic Ground. The title refers to hylozoism, an ancient philosophical view that states that all matter has life. This particular project suggests that a future city could operate as a living being in which Holozolic Ground offers a vision for a new generation of responsive architecture. Its environment can be described as a suspended geo-textile that gradually accumulates hybrid soil from ingredients drawn from its surroundings. Affiliated to the functions of a living system, embedded machine intelligence allows human interaction to trigger breathing, caressing, and swallowing motions as well as hybrid metabolic exchanges.

Metabolic Materials, as Rachel Armstrong, experimental chemist describes it, is the study of the rational engineering of living systems. Iris see's these possibilities of living technology as a future where design, art, architecture and even fashion are not just newly made and after discarded, but rather as human creations that are partly alive and therefore able to change and improve. Iris' research this year’s fashion season is based on an exploration of natural morphologies and digital topologies in bio-diverse ecosystems. The materials that Iris Van Herpen applied her collection are; acrylic transparent sheets, eco-leather, metallic coated stripes, copper sheeting, silicone lace, Swarovski crystals, and polyamide. The colors are; black, dark red, dark blue, copper, metallic aubergine, skin and rye-grey.

Iris’ collaborations are the following;
Heaven on a bag,
United Nude for the shoes, and with
Irene Bussemaker on a headpiece