Written by Barbie Brady
If clothing is a necessity and fashion is a luxury, then the vivid creations by Dutch designer Iris van Herpen can only be described as art. Van Herpen started her storied career at the tender age of 23 after studying Fashion Design at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts Arnhem. She interned at Alexander McQueen in London and Claudy Jongstra in Amsterdam, then bravely embarked on her own unique path. Combining transformative, symbiotic, intricate patterns, textures, materials and skill, she creates fashion that is more like a vivid dream, and less like anything else out there. Her ability to go beyond limitations and to recognize fashion and architecture as true expressions of the feminine voice, allows her a freedom and intensity that is unparalleled by any of her contemporaries.
Van Herpen launched her label, Iris van Herpen in 2007. After only 2 years she began to win Dutch fashion and innovation awards for her work. Her open-minded approach to technique provided her with a roadmap to explore cutting edge technology while maintaining a deep reverence for craftsmanship and attention to detail. Her inspiration comes from the natural world but is influenced by the human impact on that world - rooting Van Herpen in the midst of both.
“My design is exactly the opposite of what fashion generally is today. I go back to forgotten craftsmanship and the love for handwork, and at the same time I’m embedding new technologies and collaborations with artists, architects, and scientists.” – Iris van Herpen
By 2011 Van Herpen had started to use 3D printing as an element in her work. This revolutionary breakthrough in technology allowed her to create shapes and textures which fabric alone could not do. Painstaking details combined with exacting execution allowed for one-of-a-kind moments that could be worn. Yet she didn’t stop there. Her use of unorthodox materials expanded to polymer liquid, metals, alchemy, magnetics, lasers, bones, energy, iron resin, silicone and so much more.
It was at this time that she was invited to become a guest-member of the Parisian Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. Part of the Fédération française de la couture, this distinction is quite rare for those who aren’t born French. The Fédération criteria for being considered Haute Couture is rigorous. In order to earn the right to call oneself a couture house and use the term “haute couture” in any way you must adhere to some very specific rules. Your designs must be made-to-order for private clients, customized for them specifically with multiple fittings. You must have a physical workshop in Paris that employs full-time staff that includes no less than twenty technical people. And you absolutely must present two collections each year that consist of 50 original designs (once in January and once in July) representing looks from day to evening. It’s a tall order for any label, but a definitive leg-up for a label that is only 5 years old.
A custom piece by Van Herpen
can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000
This level of execution and innovation doesn’t come cheap. A custom piece by Van Herpen can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $100,000 and that’s if you can get a slot in her appointment book. Some of her creations take 2 years to finish and can be touched by 50-100 skilled experts. Some of her most notable clients include Lady Gaga, Björk, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Scarlett Johansson and Cate Blanchett to name a few. She’s been featured in performances, music videos, red carpets, and on album covers. However, her notoriety doesn’t stem from these famous associations. In contrast, it’s from the work itself. As that’s where the true magic of her mind lies.
“The symbiotic relationships found in nature’s intricate web, the invisible forces that structure architectural patterns, and the mercurial dance in which the body and mind intersect are influences that shape the visionary creative process” – IrisvanHerpen.com
Her work is other-worldly. She generates shapes that are reminiscent of nature but call into focus elements like air, earth and water. They are alien designs that celebrate the female form. Insect or amoeba? Alien or animal? Her use of 3D printing allows for precise sculpting of shapes to drape and move on the body. Boundaries between the known and unknown emerge. Her models and clients appear to be one with the garments, all movement is in sync. The fashion and the feminine flow together. And the effect is sensational. Like exotic birds, or creatures of the sea, she transforms the model into something magnificently caught between all that we know and all we can imagine.
Van Herpen’s boundless ability to collaborate with architects, technicians and scientists provides not only inspiration but a fresh, untapped energy that is entirely new. For this reason, her work has been included in many museums worldwide. Her first solo exhibition happened in 2012 at the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands. However, within just a few years, she had work included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York City, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. Rightly so, as a museum is where this sort of magical art belongs.
Though Desroches’ style originates in Art Brut and is heavily influenced by both symbolism and fauvism, it is entirely unique, defying simplistic categorization. This is very much by design as the artist seeks to challenge artistic and stylistic norms in his work. Desroches considers himself a symbolist in the sense that the image transcends the representation of the face alone. Through his drawing, he is able to achieve montages of faces into one single work. It appears effortlessly complex in the moment as they mystically appear. Desroches works with color, however he is aware of the intrinsic emotions associated with specific colors, and he balances them perfectly together. He has shared the emotions of some while identifying his own emotions and those of others. Desroches conveys these emotions with the viewer in hopes that you, too, will feel the same emotion as seen in his subjects.
The choice of abstraction allows intuition to take its full measure, it is a vector that reflects the unconscious. Released from figurative rationality, the line follows an improvised way, guided by the singularity of each creation in a style forged with experience that deeply inhabits the artist. The lines create sensitive shapes that render the encounter a continuity, the thread that drives the artist, with the fleeting emotion of the moment. Desroches captures and reflects his creative presence through his actions on the canvas. His drawings are halfway between two- and three-dimensions, organic meets geometric, abstraction mimics a dance without repeating the same movement twice. It is obvious that he finds many connections between drawing and music, his being the virtual melody.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in particular loves to collect the work of Van Herpen and has several unorthodox pieces in their collection. One piece entitled Bird, from the Fall/Winter 2013/14 collection has actual bird skulls with glass eyes and studded with pearls then dipped in silicone. These bird skulls adorn each shoulder and hips. Thousands of laser-cut nude feathers cover the garment giving the illusion of movement, fur, flight, and fantasy. It’s a conservator’s nightmare. Van Herpen’s use of materials is so avantgarde that there is no telling how it will hold up over time. Most plastics tend to break down with oil secretions and ultimately turn sticky and collect dust and dirt from the air. There is no way to know how they will fair. There are already plans to deny these creations light and air in order to sustain them for the ages.
Roots of Rebirth is the title of her Spring-Summer 2021 Haute Couture collection. “Iris van Herpen explores a symbiosis of high technology and the artisanal craftsmanship of couture, through a collection that references the intricacy of fungi and the entanglement of life that breathes beneath our feet.” States her website. As the title suggests, the work references roots, vines, webs of delicate thread, mushroom shapes and sacred geometry. You will find plumes of ombre draping, regale kinetic headdresses, scales of precision, and a myriad of feathered forms. Van Herpen uses vibrant color, unexpected shapes, and exquisite tailoring to transform her models into muses from mother nature herself.
Scientist, Merlin Sheldrake said “Thinking about fungi makes the world look different. These astonishing organisms challenge our animal imaginations and make questions of many of our well-worn concepts, from individuality to intelligence.” Using roots and spores as guides, Van Herpen organically designs shapes that mirror what’s happening in the undergrowth of the forest floor. Twisting and blossoming, weaving and winding, this is the landscape that destroys and yet reincarnates all life.
American artist, Casey Curran, was invited to collaborate on this particular show by making two kinetic crowns that gently frame and reframe the models, compounding their movement with its own. His work generally consists of subtle motion generated by hand cranks and based in themes of nature. The act of engaging with his work to provide movement makes the viewer an integrated part of the experience. Likewise, the addition of his “crowns” balanced the bridge of the ethereal and the real as the models walked the runway. Once again proving that Van Herpen knows exactly when and how to wow.
If you, yourself, are not a famous celebrity or person of great wealth, you can always purchase a modest belt or scarf from her online boutique. Belts cost € 1.000 (Roughly $1217.95 USD) and scarves are much more reasonable at € 169 ($205.83 USD). You might also try sourcing some of her collaboration shoes that she regularly creates with the help of shoe designer, United Nude. I was able to locate a few of her Iris van Herpen X United Nude AW10 Synesthesia ones on the resale site, Poshmark.com for a mere $800 USD. A bargain if you’d like to own a piece of fantastical fashion. They might look challenging to walk in, but are undoubtedly works of art.
Van Herpen has also created three books to date. Each cataloging her stunning sculptural visions for various periods in her timeline of development. A must have for any budding artist, fashion designer or fan of the fabulous. Each diving into the intricacies of concepting, fabricating and finishing these dreamlike signatures of style. They contain extensive photography and interviews providing additional insight into the inner workings of her fabulous mind.
There are no current plans on the horizon to open any ready-to-wear retail locations. Iris van Herpen’s elaborate creations and her couture sensibilities truly can’t be watered down to satiate the masses. And isn’t that refreshing? A true artist, in every sense of the word. Her label is kept afloat by the custom bespoke design orders from the wealthy and the gracious museums and collectors around the world who recognize its value by its aesthetics and beauty. -
