Iris van Herpen’s technological couture

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Jul 1, 2019

On the day after the Centre Pompidou announced plans to stage fashion exhibitions inside the giant museum of contemporary art, it was instructive to attend the latest collection by Iris van Herpen on Monday in Montmartre.

 
For at that crossroads where fashion and fine art intersect, van Herpen is the single most fertile creator today.
 
This season she collaborated with American artist Anthony Howe, whose giant, gleaming white, circular and poetic kinetic Omnivore sculpture rotated at the center of the catwalk inside the restored Elysée Montmartre concert hall.

Van Herpen’s finale even featured a model whose white dress included two rotating cyclical branches and petals that matched Howe’s work.
 
The Dutch couturier entitled the collection Hypnosis, which she explained referenced “the hypnotic visualization of nature’s tapestry.”
 
Truly this was technological couture, where van Herpen linked up with Professor Philip Beesley to develop thousands of plotter cut mini ripples that dissected through dresses, revealing skin as the dresses undulated down the runway.
 
In total 19 silhouettes, each in various layers of transparencies so delicately handled that steel looked as light as organza.
 
All of this collection could easily find a home in a fine art museum. We hope much of it gets to be worn. Celine Dion turned up in a layered red laser printed column by van Herpen at this show. And the Canadian singer has never looked hipper.