Iris van Herpen (born June 5, 1984) is a Dutch

fashion design Fashion design is the Art (skill), art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its Fashion accessory, accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and plac ...

er known for fusing technology with traditional

haute couture ''Haute couture'' (; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design that is constructed by hand from start-to-finish. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became th ...

craftsmanship. Van Herpen opened her own label ''Iris van Herpen'' in 2007. In 2011, the Dutch designer became a guest-member of the Parisian Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, part of the

Fédération française de la couture The Fédération française de la couture, du prêt-à-porter des couturiers et des créateurs de mode ( en, French Federation of Fashion and of Ready-to-Wear Couturiers and Fashion Designers) is the governing body for the French fashion industr ...

. Since then, Van Herpen has continuously exhibited her new collections at

Paris Fashion Week Paris Fashion Week (french: Semaine de la mode de Paris) is a series of designer presentations held semiannually in Paris, France with spring/summer and autumn/winter events held each year. Dates are determined by the French Fashion Federation. ...

. Van Herpen's work has been included in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, the

Cooper-Hewitt Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the wing of the Smithsonian Inst ...

in New York and the

Palais de Tokyo The Palais de Tokyo (''Tokyo Palace'') is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, facing the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs to ...

in Paris.

Career

Iris van Herpen graduated from the ArtEZ University of the Arts in Arnhem in 2006 and interned at

Alexander McQueen Lee Alexander McQueen CBE (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen label in 1992, and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His achievements in fashio ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, and Claudy Jongstra in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

before launching her own label in 2007. The Dutch designer debuted her first Couture collection Chemical Crows''’, at the 2007 Amsterdam Fashion Week. Van Herpen was one of the first designers to adopt 3D-printing as a garment construction technique. Since 2009, pop star

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...

has worn Iris van Herpen's designs on several occasions. In 2012,

wore a custom shiny black Couture dress for the launch of her perfume Fame. The shape of the perfume bottle served as the inspiration of the dress, which Van Herpen constructed from laser-cut strips of black acrylic. Van Herpen has also made use of silicones, iron filings, and resin.

Future in Fashion Design

Iris van Herpen takes fashion into the future. Combining craftsmanship with digital technology, she creates an entirely new way to experience clothing. Most notably, the Dutch designer was one of the first to present 3-D-printed dresses in both static and flexible forms on the runway, in a collaboration with the Belgian company Materialise. Since then, her evolution has continued. Her Voltage collection explored the interaction between clothing and electricity. She used Scanning Electron Microscope technology for her Micro collection. And she is known not just for using unique materials, but also for creating her own.

Collaborations

Because of van Herpen's multidisciplinary approach to creation, she has collaborated with various artists such as Jolan van der Wiel and

Neri Oxman Neri Oxman ( he, נרי אוקסמן; born February 6, 1976) is an American–Israeli designer and professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she led the Mediated Matter research group. She is known for art and architecture that combine design, b ...

and architects such as Philip Beesley and Benthem and Crouwel Architects. The designer's interest in science and technology has led to ongoing conversations with

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gen ...

(The European Organization for Nuclear Research) and

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...

. Further collaborations; *

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...

Benjamin Millepied Benjamin Millepied (; born 10 June 1977) is a French dancer and choreographer, who has lived and worked in the United States since joining the New York City Ballet in 1995, where he became a soloist in 1998 and a principal in 2002. He has also ...

* Sasha Waltz * Nick Knight

Awards and recognition

* TIME Magazine names Iris van Herpen's 3D printed dresses one of the 50 Best Inventions of 2011. *

ANDAM ANDAM is a French fashion award established in 1989 by Nathalie Dufour as a joint venture between the French Ministry of Culture and the Defi Mode fashion organisation. It has been recognised as a benchmark for designers, fashion professionals, and ...

Grand Prix Award (2014) * STARTS Prize, granted by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

(2016) * Johannes Vermeer Award, Dutch state prize for the arts (2017)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Herpen, Iris van 1984 births Living people Dutch fashion designers Dutch women fashion designers People from West Maas en Waal