Born June 5, 1984 to a small town in the Netherlands, Iris van Herpen took an interest to dance and fashion in her formative years. She attended the Preparatory Course for Art & Design in Artez, where she graduated in 2006 in fashion design. Iris also interned with Alexander McQueen in London which helped her hone in on her artistic vision of fashion. After her internship, she designed shoes for United Nude until she decided to start her very own line.
Less than a year after graduation, the young designer debuted her first collection, Fragile Futurity, an enormously sculptural and thought provoking show which became the first of many innovative and breathtaking works.
Her pieces are certainly as far away from “ready-to-wear” as you could imagine, often inspired by other art forms, such as sculpture and woven art. The movement of each garment is meticulously considered during the design phases, perhaps as an echo of her dancing past. There are very futuristic qualities in van Herpen’s work, often experimenting with different treatments of textiles, even creating a dress using a sustainable 3-D fabric.
Iris van Herpen has collaborated with many different people throughout the years, from dancers to graphic designers, she constantly blurs the line between fashion, art, and design. Some of her design inspiration has come from topics such as synesthesia, alchemy, micro-organisms, human rationality, and Hylozoism–basically, it’s anything but accidental.
