iris van herpen

iris van herpen is a dutch fashion designer. she studied fashion design at artez institute of the arts arnhem and interned at alexander mcqueen in london and claudy jongstra in Amsterdam. in 2007, she started her own label. since july 2011, iris is a guest member of the prestigious parisian chambre syndicale de la haute couture, which is part of the fédération française de la couture. 

Iris van Herpen

iris van herpen had an intuitive appreciation of fashion and art as a youth. her first passion was actually dance. it was when she attended the preparatory course art and design at artez during her high school years that she became particularly interested in designing clothes.

she graduated in 2006 from the fashion design department of artez. her graduation collection machine jewellery already bears van herpen’s characteristic interest in the visualization of elusive concepts and intangible elements. in this case ‘time’ and inventiveness in material use and treatment.

Amsterdam International Fashion Week

from the beginning of her career, iris van herpen’s talent has been singled out as very promising and it has grown strong over the years. it has been recognized through awards, exhibitions, publications and her guest membership of the chambre syndicale de la haute couture.

Bjork in Iris van Herpen

singer-songwriter björk wore dresses from several iris van herpen collections. additionally, singer-songwriter lady gaga, artist and style icon daphne guinness have worn dresses by iris van herpen. van herpen’s designs follow, complete and change the body and the emotions that accompany it, when simultaneously the body adapts and adopts the new forms. movement is key. it is of decisive importance for the ultimate design how a moving body reacts on a piece of clothing and vice versa, how a piece of clothing behaves when worn.

Lady Gaga

van herpen’s decision to explore the rapid prototyping technology of 3d printing allowed her to be the first to introduce this technology in fashion and to create astonishing designs with it. van herpen became fascinated with the endless design potential of 3d printing. in recent collections she further developed her prints by adding detailed handwork. the 3d prints only added to that other much-heard term to describe van herpen’s style: futuristic. 

would you wear this?

besides the use of new technologies, the term mostly refers to the appearance of her looks. what is very important to realize, though, is that her designs combine new technologies and diligent handwork. in fact, this is characteristic for all van herpen’s collections. exactly this combination of handwork and innovative technologies brings van herpen to her edgy designs. she equally values techniques from the past with techniques and technologies of the future because they have their own power and beauty that, when rightly combined, can be enhanced instead of being substituted by one another.

fash'on... BAM!