Overzealous writers of SEO-friendly red-carpet headlines would have you believe that celebrities glow, vaporize and scintillate in their designer creations.
If they’re clever and brave enough to wear haute couture by Iris van Herpen, all that could be true.
Her fall haute couture collection was another feat of imagination and engineering on par with the cutting-edge aquatic architecture that inspired it.
Geometric forms floated over invisible tulle minidresses and gowns, or orbited around them on fine fiberglass rods, as if shards of pattern began drifting off in a zero-gravity situation. Other dresses composed of whorled wiring and gauzy fabric resembled exotic undersea creatures with undulating fins.
The Dutch designer excels at fashions that are otherworldly, yet resolutely feminine with their delicate, waist-defining constructions and intricate embellishments. Here she managed to incorporate metallic elements into gossamer gowns, one draped with an iridescent, completely weightless Japanese fabric that suggests a film of hot, molten steel — or toxic smoke.
During a preview, van Herpen described groundbreaking projects like Oceanix, a modular, floating neighborhood under development in Busan, South Korea, by Bjarke Ingels, and the futuristic, partially submerged laboratories and pavilions envisioned by French architect and oceanographer Jacques Rougerie.
Based in The Netherlands, one of Europe’s “low countries,” the designer is intimately aware of the threat of rising sea levels and of the possibilities of living on water, though in Netherlands it’s mostly on boats and barges so far.
Ingels envisions floating, modular neighborhoods, all integrating zero waste and circular systems into a new form of waterborne urban living.
“I just feel really inspired by the possibilities of extending cities,” van Herpen enthused, mentioning that aquatic architects have also developed “self-healing bio concrete” and also a stone-like construction material that is grown underwater, with electrical pulses speeding its growth. “It’s just incredible how much innovation is combined with creativity there.”
Ditto for van Herpen’s fall couture, which incorporates traditional techniques like seed embroideries so delicate the patterns look airbrushed, but also laser-cut fabric structures injected with silicone via syringes, into which flakes of abalone shell are inlaid.
The designer finished off her looks with “bionic” boots that were digitally modeled and then 3D printed using a variety of textures. These shoes truly resemble futuristic buildings — a Calatrava around your ankles.
But guess what?
“They’re super comfy,” van Herpen said, showing the sturdiness of the platform sole and the pliability of uppers. “It’s even a little bit stretchy when you walk in it.…You really need to know your printers.”
