Haute couture is not without its sweeping gestures. For Fall, Iris van Herpen said she was interested in a version of the opposite, what she explained as “slowing down the movement of a fabric.” To reinforce this time-lapse concept, the runway of the blacked-out venue featured In 20 Steps by artists Studio Drift, whereby as many articulated glass tubes suspended from the ceiling very slowly simulated the movement of wings in flight. If the 17 looks came and went in roughly 10 minutes, the overhead installation would have represented less time than it took you to read this sentence. “Often I like to zoom out, but this was really about zooming into almost one second of my whole process,” she said.
Van Herpen is haute couture’s chief scientist and perhaps also its leading futurist, and you can inevitably detect how biology, physics, and a ton of algorithms inform her designs. This latest lineup evolved on techniques she has previously developed while framing the forms within the show’s title, Syntopia, which, in her words, refers to “biology merging with technology.” Thus, her signature parametric patterning now appeared as gray wool thanks to laser-cutting from complex file-making. The two coats that opened the show were as close to classic tailoring as we’ve seen from the designer, so the addition of woven leather somewhat complicated an otherwise essential and masterfully executed piece.
The stack of flash cards featuring illustrations and descriptions of the creations that always accompanies the show notes helped to decipher a dynamic minidress that rippled with two-tone dyed red organza heat-bonded to laser-cut Mylar and black cotton. Like several other looks, these material waves nodded to Victorian-era chronophotography, and specifically here to the lines of bird wing movements. Picture them on the red carpet and their symbolism gets lost; picture them in a museum and the movement is thwarted. And yet, the effect remains strong. Meanwhile, compared with the cage shapes in stainless steel and cotton, two cape designs in liquid-coated organza from Japan made for ethereal expressions of fluidity. In spite of their sheerness—always a practical concern—the pleating shifted around the body with goddess beauty.
An interesting postscript to the word “syntopia” is that its meaning also apparently suggests a bridge between utopian and dystopian ideals, which still dovetails well with Van Herpen’s work. As bestselling books Homo Deus and Life 3.0 explore the possibility of human gods and the rise of artificial intelligence (naturally, she’s read both), her designs are significant, even when they aren’t conducive to wearing (see the fully restricted arms of the final dress, which was “layered like a feather’s architecture”). Rather than imagined as some runway science fantasy, they are inextricably linked to science. And this creates an altogether different rapport with time than the usual seasonal collection. As Van Herpen summed up best, “These pieces are not necessarily here and now. They both connect to something that is coming and something that has already come.”
