Dutch Fashion Designer Iris van Herpen Used Models as Sculptures ‣ CVLTARTES

Iris van Herpen is a Dutch fashion designer celebrated for her interdisciplinary approach that seamlessly blends art and fashion.

Drawing inspiration from nature, science, and technology, van Herpen collaborates with artists, architects, and scientists, pioneering the use of 3D printing and innovative materials. Her avantgarde designs transcend traditional fashion boundaries, merging organic forms with futuristic details.

On June 24 during Paris Haute Couture Week, van Herpen presents her signature spellbinding Couture alongside her first aerial sculptures, ushering in a new era of visual artistry for the maison.

“For a long time I’ve been working on expanding people’s perception of how fashion and art can be symbiotic. This is the natural next step for me to really show what I mean,” she says, likening her preferred process of moulage, or draping directly on the mannequin, to sculpting.

“Even though we call one practice ‘Haute Couture’ and the other ‘art,’ to me, it’s one universe.”

Conceived as two pairs, the four large-scale artworks feature an array of innovative techniques on tulle surfaces, suspended and stretched via steel tubes. Tulle, a favored material synonymous with classical ballet costumes, also serves as the basis for most of van Herpen’s Couture looks.

Alongside the sculptures, performers are presented as living artworks, which are elevated and partially sculpted into their own canvases to reflect mankind’s perceived superiority. In confronting the audience with their gaze, van Herpen encourages a process of self-realization, in which individuals expand their understanding of the self to include their relationships with other living species.

“At my home, I don’t consider the garden as being mine, but rather it’s a space that I share with all other life forms. The wilder, the better,” says van Herpen, who particularly is fascinated by observing the insects and imagining their “umwelts,” a term coined by German biologist Jakob von Uexküll to describe an organism’s unique sensory experience.

Van Herpen describes the overarching feeling that characterizes this presentation and the maison’s creative evolution as “hybrid.” Whether Couture, art, or architecture, her interdisciplinary approach remains the same, and with this hybrid collection, it has been fully embraced.