PARIS (AP) — For years, Dutch wunderkind and celebrity-favorite Iris Van Herpen has occupied trend’s edge, conjuring couture from surprising sources — banana leaves, cocoa beans and even 3D-printed polymers — whereas exploring the intersection of biology, artwork and design.
Monday’s assortment at Paris Couture Week, “Sympoiesis,” felt just like the fruits of her stressed experimentation: A present that dared to think about clothes as each organism and artifact.
In a shadowy Paris venue, Van Herpen despatched out a sequence of gossamer robes spun from different fibers so wonderful and insubstantial that they appeared conjured from air itself.
On the assortment’s coronary heart, a luminous “living dress,” animated by tens of millions of bioluminescent algae, quietly stole the scene.
The algae, thriving inside a custom-molded nutrient matrix, glimmered in electrical blue as if stitched from the deep sea — providing an eerie, charming spectacle that went past mere artifice.
Elsewhere, Van Herpen launched marriage ceremony robes crafted from lab-grown bio-protein, a futuristic Japanese fiber that’s biodegradable and endlessly recyclable — a glimpse of a trend trade reimagined for a brand new period.
Impartial girl and star energy
If the present dazzled, it additionally underscored a uncommon feat in fashionable couture: Independence.
In a world the place most designers depend on billion-dollar teams to bankroll their goals, Van Herpen stands practically alone, thriving exterior the grip of giants like LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Kering.
Her creations have turn out to be magnets for pop royalty and rule-breakers: Girl Gaga, Beyoncé, Björk, Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman have all worn her sculptural robes on the world’s largest levels.
On the Met Gala, Hailee Steinfeld surprised in a Van Herpen costume made out of ocean plastic. Dove Cameron shimmered in her work in 2022.
Star energy helps maintain the atelier, but it surely’s invention that defines her legacy. Whereas many independents have vanished from the couture calendar, Van Herpen survives by by no means enjoying it secure.
Each season, she proves that true originality isn’t solely doable — however important — in Paris.
By harnessing dwelling organisms and boundary-pushing textiles, Van Herpen’s newest assortment doubled down on her signature ethos: couture not simply as spectacle or ability, however as an open query — what would possibly trend, and nature, turn out to be subsequent?
In a world obsessive about spectacle, Van Herpen continues to ask not solely what we put on, however how we take care of the world that makes it doable.
