Iris van Herpen haute couture AW 2011 Paris
After a week of high fashion delirium and surreal extravaganza, the Paris Haute Couture Autumn Winter 2011/2012 Week came to an end yesterday. The majestic event left the streets of Paris roaming with all of fashion’s trendsetters, the hottest models and the most eccentric designers. All fashion and couture aficionados gathered up in Paris for a few days of visual royal feast! The runways, invaded by spectacular creations and hypnotizing muses, left the crowds in awe. Aside from all the big names of fashion, several exquisite emerging designers managed to grasp everyone’s attention with their unearthly creations!
In the aftermath of the event, Iris van Herpen is to be found on everybody’s lips. The young designer, aged 27, surpassed all expectations at her debut on the French catwalk and was labeled as being a ‘true visionary’! After graduating from the renowned ArtEZ Art Academy, she worked several years for Alexander ‘The Great’ McQueen and Viktor and Rolf; these experiences left a deep mark on her technique and style, as it is easily noticeable from her creations. Aside from this show, she exhibited her work during several other Haute Couture weeks the past years; however, her last showcasing was by far the most successful. The collection was actually an introduction of her work and was considered to be a ‘Best of’ of her work. The show encapsulated 19 outfits out of which only 5 were entirely new pieces, while the others were subtly upgraded versions of her most impressive designs of her past collections. Even just the mere names of her collections incite the public and make them wonder about the concepts and the hidden meanings of the creations: ‘Radiation Invasion’, ‘Synesthesia’, ‘Crystallization’, ‘Fragile Futurity’ etc.
During the few minutes of the ‘Best of’ presentation, the audience was transported to Iris’s fantastic world of plastic, rubber, metal and leather. The looks featured solely mini dresses and bodies, paired up with few, blunt accessories. The futuristic outfits, as the designer confesses, reflect her inner questions, doubts, personal challenges, to which she believes that the answers lie somewhere beyond the limits of time and space, in the boundless realm of imagination. Iris builds her designs on these pillars, drawing inspiration from everything futuristic, strange and avant-garde, making use of intense craftsmanship and special materials in order to materialize her visions.
The artist has already developed a signature style based on the extensive use of synthetic, rigid textures, on which she has to employ unconventional techniques in order to shape them the way she wants. These processes usually require special machinery and equipment which is not normally used in the fashion field, like a 4-D printer for instance. Hence, another trait of her designs is the paramount attention to details. We can notice in all her creations an incredible refinery and delicacy, despite the materials used. Who would have thought that a chunk of plain, white plastic could be turned in a breath-taking, lace-resembling dress? Or, that a piece of metal piping could ever be welded into a vest?
