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“A fashion show without beauty wouldn’t be a fashion show—I think it’s about dreaming together,” says Iris van Herpen, the Dutch fashion designer known for a level of perfectionism extending from tech-infused couture to spending 900 hours on Grimes’s Met Gala dress. “I find it really beautiful to embellish the hair, to bring details of beauty into it in a way that is also easy for daily wear.” She’s on a Zoom call from her studio in Amsterdam, where her dog Gaia is romping around on camera next to mood boards filled with sketches. This time, her 10-month-long confidential project arrives as a limited-edition holiday capsule with Aveda (the first in beauty she’s ever considered), spurred by the trust built through the brand’s backstage support.
There are gilded Henosis Hair Pins (a nod to the Greek concept of oneness) and a regal-looking Lagoon Nebula Hair Cuff (a riff on an interstellar cloud where stars are born) made from recyclable brass meant to work for all textures. There’s a cosmetic bag made of 65% postconsumer recycled materials, and even the gift boxes (yes, recycled paper) printed in van Herpen’s futuristic yet natural style are meant to be beautiful enough to display without additional wrapping. “Within my work, I have consciously chosen to go into slow fashion and to develop sustainable materials to combine craftsmanship and innovation,” says van Herpen of what drew her to Aveda’s ethos. “I knew these were going to be accessible for a wider audience, but I really wanted to bring my couture aesthetic into it and find that beautiful balance.”
She spent nearly a year going back and forth with Antoinette Beenders, senior vice president of professional global artistry, to ultimately make something she would be proud to wear herself. “Having done the hair for Iris’s show in Paris, it was a true collaboration,” Beenders tells Vogue. She sought out van Herpen for the “highest level of art” to create an attainable version of her designs that could truly work for anyone. “They’re lovely and light,” Beenders points out. “So they can work on all hairstyles and all hair textures.” Even van Herpen is looking forward to finally wearing the designs, now that she’s able to show them off IRL. “I’m not a hair artist like Antoinette, so I can make a simple braid but not much else—I think these accessories are really good tools to do something special.”
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