EXCLUSIVE: Iris Van Herpen Is Doubling Down on R&D
Iris Van Herpen is doubling down on her fashion fortes — cutting-edge technologies and fabrics, scientific collaborations and otherworldly silhouettes — and moving to an annual calendar for her couture collections and shows, WWD has learned.
“I want to create more time for the interdisciplinary approach I’ve always taken with the collection,” the Dutch designer said in an exclusive interview, explaining her absence from the next Paris Couture Week scheduled for Jan. 27 to 30. “I want to spend more time on research and development, because the collaborations that I’m doing with institutes, different artists and also scientists, they do take a lot of time. I think that’s the beauty of my process.…We can really dive into the R&D much more and therefore get a better result in the shows.”
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Van Herpen hinted she has two collaborations cooking for the collection she will present in July during the next Paris Couture Week.
She allowed that the shift to annual shows could result in larger collections — she generally presents about 14 or 15 looks maximum — but her creations are something of a tight-rope walk, given that she dabbles with experimental techniques like 4D printing, silicon molding and water-jet cutting, while keeping a lustful eye on mysterious materials like light-bending invisibility cloak, so far used only by the U.S. military.
“My mind is always triggered by the almost impossible,” Van Herpen said in the interview. “My focus is always on quality over quantity, so I never have a set amount of looks in my mind when I work on the collection. It’s an organic process, and I just go with the flow.”
The designer blends her high-tech elements alongside more traditional couture techniques such as hand-pleating, draping and embroidery.
“One couture look can easily take three months to make. So that leaves quite a small amount of time to do our collaborations outside of fashion, like the scientific research and development and also the material development. They are long processes,” she explained.
New and experimental fabrics are also prone to failure, or shortcomings, she noted. “Some of these collaborations will go into the collection, and some of them won’t succeed or need more time. So that’s always unpredictable,” she said.
Still, the move to annual shows should allow Van Herpen to source and employ more low-impact fabrics.
“Sustainability has become a bigger presence in my work, also on the material development side, and we really want to enhance that,” she said. “Those materials take more time to develop and to get right.”
Van Herpen said nixing the January show would not change the size of her teams — nor dent the number of orders for her couture dresses.
She explained that many clients choose dresses from her archives, or ask for bespoke creations, such as the digitally printed wedding gown she developed for a Brazilian client last year.
Ditto for celebrities on the red carpet. For example, Mexican singer and actress Danna Paola wore an Iris Van Herpen look from her spring 2020 collection for the “Wicked” premiere last November.
“They are more drawn to archive pieces because the more time a piece has in the world, the more value it gains, which I think is a beautiful mindset,” the designer said.
In addition, she noted annual shows should allow greater flexibility for the atelier to produce client orders, instead of rushing to ready collections for January and July runway outings.
Van Herpen’s unique approach to fashion was exalted at a Paris exhibition in 2023 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs that was assigned to its design and architecture historians, given that she routinely works in collaboration with many artists, architects, designers and scientists, extending the boundaries of fashion. (The exhibit has since been showcased at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia, and will debut with new elements at the ArtScience Museum in Singapore this March.)
Van Herpen is an intrepid fashion researcher herself, enlisting elite French skydiver Domitille Kiger for a filmed 2021 collection that had her wearing a heavily embroidered gown and plummeting headfirst at 300 kilometers per hour. Initial prototypes completely unraveled during initial tests in a wind tunnel, and were ripped during test jumps, but Van Herpen ultimately arrived at a version that held together beautifully for the awe-inspiring descent.
Meanwhile, her spring 2023 couture dresses miraculously withstood one week of submerged filming on French free diver Julie Gautier — the final movie exalting the designer’s ongoing fascination with the undersea world.
Van Herpen joins a small clutch of brands that stage only one couture show a year, which include Balenciaga, Thom Browne and Maison Margiela, though only the latter is allowed to use the haute couture appellation that’s governed by strict rules.
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