Iris Van Herpen , Dutch Fashion Designer, is probably my MOST Favorite of all. (I know terrible grammar.) It is most likely due to her being an artist first and a designer second. When you look at her designs you feel something, you are moved beyond the norm of “that looks cool” or “I want to wear that”. Iris Van Herpen is a Haute Couture Fashion Designer-which is French for High Dress making. Haute Couture designs are constructed by hand from start to finish, made from high quality, expensive, often unusual fabric and sewn with extreme attention to detail and finished by the most experienced and capable sewers, often using time-consuming, hand-executed techniques. (credit to Huffpost) As of late, Van Herpen’s designs have been making their way into Red Carpet and Award shows, showing their “wearability”.
So WHO is Iris Van Herpen?
Let’s talk about Iris Van Herpen. Well, first she was a ballet dancer from age 4 to 18. Iris Van Herpen’s true heart was in clothing design. After studying at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem, she interned at Alexander McQueen and Claudy Jongstra. Iris Van Herpen launched her own label in 2007 and has been showing in Paris Haute Couture since 2011. Van Herpen keeps her atelier in Amsterdam where she and her staff create her art.
One of the things that sets Iris Van Herpen apart is her use of 3D printing as a garment construction technique. She has worked with scientists, architects and people in the tech world to create her detailed and avant grade(french for the Advance Guard-one that leads the way, in fashion it means new and unusual or experimental ideas). Iris Van Herpen pushes outside the typical fashion world and leaps into the science world merging the two together in a creative design not seen elsewhere. I have seen her work on exhibit at The Phoenix Art Musuem. Her works are surreal, beautiful and show the expanse of the creative mind. The Crystalline Dress blew my mind-it was created using Tranluscent Polymer and Resin. These are just two of the unconventional materials used in her dresses. Other materials used include: polyamide, woven metal gauze, children’s umbrella spines, gold foil. Yet as she’s uses these materials she still creates movement in the designs.
Iris Van herpen has been able to cross the science/art boundary and bring them both together under one creative mind giving birth to the beauty that is inherent in her designs. Please check her out and see for yourself. Iris Van Herpen, a unique person expressing her creativity and mind in Haute Couture.
