Having created quite a splash with Crystallization, her breakthrough collection of Spring 2011, Iris van Herpen was invited to present her next collection during the Spring 2011 haute couture season as a guest member of the Fédération Française de la Couture. The show exploded, and expanded, the traditional boundaries of the genre as, in her signature fashion, Van Herpen mixed time-honored handwork techniques with of-the-moment technology. Working again with architect Daniel Widrig, the designer used rapid prototyping (3-D printing) to create sculptural, seamless pieces that were printed, rather than sewn, into existence.
Titled Escapism, the collection asked how electronic, digital addictions distance us from reality. On top of this, Van Herpen filtered the “fantastic realism” of sculptor Kris Kuksi, having drawn a parallel between the Baroque nature of the American artist’s work and the “exaggerations and excesses” of the digital age. Topping things off were custom hats by Stephen Jones representing the five senses—plus one.
What saved Escapism from becoming de trop was Van Herpen’s steadfast attention to craft, which is, after all, the raison d’être of the haute couture. From a young age, the designer has said, she found escape through her work, which lulls her into a state of flow. (Famously, she clears her mind with her daredevil hobby of skydiving.) As Van Herpen increasingly integrates technology into her practice, her awareness of its capacity to create beauty, as well as emptiness and (digital) addiction, has been heightened. With Escapism, she gave us a glimpse of the future as she sees it: “a mix of nature blended with technology.”
