![\"Iris](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/iris_van_herpen_portrait1_300_CMYK.jpg\")
Iris van Herpen. Portrait by Anastasia Muna.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Iris van Herpen. Portrait by Anastasia Muna.<\/p>\n
In a time when it\u2019s becoming increasingly hard to create something entirely new and non-referential, Dutch couturier Iris van Herpen carved out her own unique and complex identity, with designs that make the immaterial tangible. What do magnetism, electricity or smoke look like as garments? Iron, plexiglass and industrial materials all find their way into her creations, which are worn by clients including Beyonc\u00e9, Bj\u00f6rk and Lady Gaga. In a recent live-streamed, four-day workshop with SHOWstudio, she used a hot air gun and acrylic glass to sculpt the \u201cWater Dress\u201d for Daphne Guinness, based on a shot captured by Nick Knight, from a session where buckets of black and white water were thrown at Guinness.
\nSleek met van Herpen at Berlin\u2019s Soho House, which hosted a dinner and conversation with the Dutch designer as part of their international \u201cAn evening with\u2026\u201d series. Van Herpen, who arrived in the German capital with a small entourage, was particularly excited about the city\u2019s nightlife offerings. But before that, there was plenty to talk about\u2026
\nYour work is often described as \u201cfuturistic\u201d or \u201cfantastical\u201d, adjectives I\u2019d like to challenge. After all, you\u2019re working with technological advancements that are available now; your work is concerned with the present.\u00a0<\/b> \nI don\u2019t get the word \u201cfantasy\u201d. If I\u2019m able to make it, or even think it, it\u2019s there already. It\u2019s that simple. I think anything you can imagine already exists in a way. But of course there\u2019s a lot of imagination in my designs. And it\u2019s all collected from the world around me. Everything is here and now. It\u2019s important for people to realise that it\u2019s not about the technology \u2013 technology for me is just a tool, the means and not the end. I guess people like to read about new technology, like 3D printing, which is celebrated as a revolution in the way we make things. So my work is seen as if it were all about that but it\u2019s not. The biggest aspect of it is that it\u2019s handmade, haute-couture. I don\u2019t work with technology because I find it necessary but because it gives me options, helps me to get to where I want to go with my designs. I need it in that sense, but I also work on pieces where there are no technological elements involved \u2013 well, maybe in the materials but not in the making process.
\nYou\u2019re a serial collaborator: you\u2019ve developed materials with MIT, designed costumes for ballet for Benjamin Millepied, worked with National Geographic on your \u201cBiopiracy\u201d collection, with architects, artists, the list is long\u2026 you\u2019re now embarking on a new collaboration with the scientists at CERN. How do you decide what to explore?\u00a0<\/b> \nI approach many different disciplines. I\u2019m afraid to get stuck in my own head, in my own world. It\u2019s pretty intense to work only on one thing, so when I collaborate it gives me a place to escape to for a little bit. I\u2019m in contact with CERN and I\u2019ve been there once so far. But it\u2019s not like I\u2019m not going to go there to work on my next show. This collaboration doesn\u2019t have a time and place where it must go. I want the collaboration to be a natural process. I don\u2019t want to have the end goal already in my head when I meet someone, that\u2019s not the purpose of working together. CERN is very inspiring for me. I hope it will come out in my work in some way. We\u2019ll just see where it goes. The scale of what they\u2019re working on is enormous. I was very tired after my visit, but in a good, inspiring way.
\nYou\u2019ve shown at fashion weeks in Amsterdam, London, Berlin and now in Paris. Have you settled now?<\/b> \nI love Paris. It\u2019s really the place for me, where I feel most connection with people and fashion journalists. I feel at home there in the sense that people really understand craft and they don\u2019t think you\u2019re crazy when you work on one dress for three months. It\u2019s a place where I can dream. And of course haute couture is based there. The heart of my work is couture. It\u2019s the core and the laboratory of everything I do.
\nCan you explain the relation between your couture and ready-to-wear collections? To me, the former seems more restrictive of the body, it dictates movement.<\/b> \nSome 3D-printed dresses where I first explored the technique were so delicate that you couldn\u2019t sit. But I try to develop every technique into something I hope can be made for RTW. I like to work interactively. A lot of the materials come from the couture collection, and because we spend so much time with research and development, we get to know them and are able to work with them for RTW. If we were only doing RTW, we wouldn\u2019t have been able to research and develop \u2013 it wouldn\u2019t be profitable. The haute couture collection enables us to do RTW. It allows us to work with artists, architects, MIT, or CERN. It\u2019s the perfect combination for me. I care less and less about the distinction. For me, it\u2019s really about creation.<\/p>\n
![\"Iris](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/iris_van_herpen_portrait4_300_CMYK.jpg\")
Iris van Herpen. Portrait by Anastasia Muna.<\/p>\n
Yet I feel like restriction of the body, some type of \u201cbondage aesthetic\u201d maybe, exists in your work. You\u2019ve recently done an issue of A Magazine Curated By. It\u2019s like opening a window into your psyche, and I\u2019d like to talk about the image on the cover.\u00a0<\/b> \nThe inside really showed the different areas where I get my inspiration from and all the people who influence my work. It\u2019s a visualisation of my world, bringing it all together. The cover shows model Hane Gabby Odiele wearing a piece of mouth jewellery by a young St. Martins graduate. For me, A Magazine is about showing the process of how you get somewhere, and finding it\u2019s not always easy. So the cover is on the one hand funny and joyful \u2013 Hane Gabby Odiele is smiling at you. On the other hand it\u2019s kind of nasty, I wouldn\u2019t want to wear this mouthpiece. It shows the friction, the difficulty of the process of being creative. Fashion in general mostly shows the end result, the garment is what you finally talk about but my processes are so complex that, though people ask about them, mostly I realise people don\u2019t really understand them. The normal way of making fashion is very different. So it was important for me to have this space and go into the process of making, and it\u2019s not always a nice and easy process. Iris van Herpen. Portrait by Anastasia Muna. In a time when it\u2019s becoming increasingly hard to create something entirely new and non-referential, Dutch couturier Iris van Herpen carved out her own unique and complex identity, with designs that make the immaterial tangible. What do magnetism, electricity or smoke look like as garments? Iron, plexiglass…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[1259,21,115,1567],"class_list":["post-14978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fashion","tag-anastasia-muna","tag-fashion","tag-hili-perlson","tag-iris-van-herpen"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n
\nDo you see yourself a bit as an artist or a fashion designer through and through?<\/b> \nBefore I started fashion at the art academy, we did one semester of exploring all the disciplines. I realised that I need there to be a function. Fashion is about interacting with the body, and I need the restriction of the body, because it gives you limitations, which I need. I wouldn\u2019t be able to make a sculpture, it\u2019s too free for me. When I make a collection, I need a deadline. I also used to dance, but I don\u2019t think I could be a professional dancer because I love materials and I like how once you put all that work into something, it\u2019s there and can then go to someone else. The garment starts its own life with someone else. I like to work with matter, with my hands, and with something that once done, is out of my control. The process is completed by the wearer. I hate clothes on hangers. They\u2019re like dead things.
\nEntnommen aus Sleek 42 “Fun & Games”<\/a><\/strong>
\n<\/a>
\nRead more print features<\/a> from the Sleek archives<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"