There is real time and there is Iris Van Herpen time. In real time, people will spend a few hours absorbed in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs exhibition dedicated to the peerless Dutch designer who has developed singular pathways between haute couture craftsmanship and the fields of science, nature, technology, architecture, art, and dance. Within Van Herpen’s universe, 16 years of creation span several millennia of inspiration and research, from an ancient nautilus to the Large Hadron Collider.
Occupying the museum’s Christine Stephen Schwarzman Galleries, the two-story space where the Schiaparelli and Mugler retrospectives have also been staged, “Iris Van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses” is an exhibition that induces awe on every level: the technical achievement of the 100 or so dresses on display; the rare glimpses into Van Herpen’s process; the selection of art and objects that further enrich her conceptual approach; and the sheer breadth of her imagination. During a walkthrough, she says, “when you narrow down the whole exhibition to one subject, it would be transformation or metamorphosis, which comes through in my work on the human body.”
Based in Amsterdam, Van Herpen is recognized for astonishing collections that, depending on the season, conjure hybrid creatures, fantastical earth goddesses, futuristic female visions, or all of the above. While they have been worn by the likes of Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Björk, Tilda Swinton, and Grimes, they also seem destined for permanent collections at museums. A number of institutions around the world collect her pieces and there have been retrospectives elsewhere, including the High Museum of Art in Atlanta and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. But this marks her first major show in Paris.
The exhibition unfolds like a cerebral wonderland where visitors can marvel over Van Herpen’s material experimentation—at once traditionally intricate and innovatively lavish. It’s worth noting that she was the first couturier to show a digitally printed 3D dress in 2010 and she works with architects, artists, and engineers such as Philip Beesley, Shelee Carruthers, and Isaïe Bloch to arrive at elements that might be synthetically engineered or organically grown.
Because complexity is inherent to Van Herpen’s work, the show feels like a privileged opportunity to understand her methods and motivations. “My design process is super pure and simple in that it can go from darker moments to moments of dreams and hopes. I think that is really present in the show and I really think that people can come very close to who I am.”
Two days ahead of the opening, as staff were polishing video panels and placing petri dishes under microscopes (some containing fabric swatches; others, insect specimens), Van Herpen has arrived directly from the train station and seems amazed by the progress. We find each other in the first room, which explores her ongoing fascination with water, the origin of life. Talk about diving right in. Given the impossibility of representing something that has no solid shape, it is all the more amazing to see dresses encircled by solid splashes of PetG, a kind of thermoplastic; vaporous waves of gradient organza; and aqueous gowns that ripple around the body. Even the mannequins look like they are formed from bubbles.
“It’s like starting with the hardest part—and it’s never finished,” she says, standing in front of a screen where her dresses have been filmed underwater. I’ve been surrounded by water since my youth, and it comes back to me all the time. I just have to translate it into my work.”
Curated by Cloé Pitiot and assistant curator Louise Curtis, the exhibition unfolds as nine themes that feel consistent to Van Herpen’s visual language—Skeletal Embodiment, Growth Systems, New Nature, Synesthesia, and Mythology of Fear should offer some sense—with each enhanced by Studio Nathalie Crinière’s thoughtful scenography, from raw, stripped-down walls to an immersive cabinet of curiosities.
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Throughout, there are customized mannequins in different skin tones—“It makes them more human,” says Van Herpen. Lighting effects sweep across her glassy and shimmering textures, while an ambient soundscape by her partner, Salvador Breed, rises and recedes from room to room. Around the midpoint, the dress that Grimes wore to the 2021 Met Gala is given pride of place, framed by a large window overlooking a soaring passageway within the museum. From here, visitors proceed up the central staircase, its adjacent wall paneled in a photo mosaic of other stars shining in her gowns.
Without appearing starstruck, Van Herpen acknowledges that celebrities bring added dimension to her work. “They all have their own femininity, their own strength, their own creative power. It’s really beautiful to see this come together with my own imagination because I don’t necessarily have the person in mind. But when this happens, it often clicks,” she says.
Already, encountering so many of her designs up-close (resist the temptation to reach out and touch!) feels like special access. Yet what really brings us into her world is a studio space arranged with material samples that reveal various states of workmanship: gorgeous geometric embroideries, quill-like embellishments, fabrics painstakingly painted like butterfly wings, striated volumes, a delicate crystalline lattice. On one of the wall texts is a word that captures the scale of her radical output: “craftolution.” When she uses color, for instance, every pattern or gradation has been meticulously studied to reflect aspects of nature (hence the microscopes). “It s digging deeper and deeper to show the inspiration for our own layering. Often people miss that with the shows because it’s so subtle.”
Although it is said that humans can never out-create nature, Van Herpen shows a determination to do so, but with a certain mortal humility rather than artistic hubris. “When it comes to the intention and the effort and the love that goes into something, then I think that humans can be as good as nature,” she says. “But then when you think of evolution in the long run, it’s hard for people in a lifetime, whereas evolution goes back millions of years.” She continues: “One big outstanding question is whether we can really be as clever as nature in its circularity and its perfection in how things are continually renewed. I think when design gets there, we are very close to nature. But I must also be honest that this is not where fashion is at yet.”
Just as in her atelier, there is a realistic view of Amsterdam’s old wood harbor, where her team will often swim in the summertime (another connection back to water). Van Herpen, who is 39, grew up in Den Bosch, the famous birthplace of Hieronymus Bosch, the 16th century artist whose surreal, witty, and grotesque depictions of humanity remain shocking to this day. She conjures her vast repository of references by interspersing contemporary artworks, historical artifacts, nature documentaries, illustrated volumes, and fossil fragments. This also extends the exhibition’s interest beyond fashion, drawing people’s attention to, for example, Collectif Mé’s black ocean mass, Ren Ri’s honeycomb architecture, Ferruccio Laviani’s glitchy carved wood armoire or Kate MccGwire’s bulbous feather sculptures.
Van Herpen says she felt ready to share much of herself. “All of the rooms together read like a diary for me. They are very personal,” she says as we reach the Mythology room, which she singles out as her favorite, in part because it showcases her earliest dresses from 2008, which were assembled from umbrella parts, but also because she finds parallels across time from Japanese parables and Greek allegories to modern life. “For me, this connects to the metaphors of our digital identities. It is really interesting how classical mythology is actually overlapping with some of the challenges of new technology.”
For her spring 2021 collection, Van Herpen filmed one of her designs on champion skydiver Domitille Kiger, an extraordinary endeavor that challenged the old chestnut about limits. She maintains that there will always be constraints, but she hopes people understand how the show ultimately conveys her freedom. “It’s not actually a theme but everything that I have been doing is about freedom. I’m really trying to stay out of the expectations that other people have within my discipline [regarding] being a fashion designer and an artist at the same time.”
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The show reaches its climax with Cosmic Bloom, a vivid installation of mannequins displayed as if defying gravity and dancing (Van Herpen’s main pursuit before pivoting to fashion), all dressed in the most colorful of her designs. To either side images of the galaxy from the James Webb telescope act as background to pieces from the most recent collections. And not to be missed is the previously unseen photo of a model shot by Nick Knight at CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider. It’s fair to assume that Van Herpen’s research-based bona fides factored into the invitation.
On the subject of research, Van Herpen reveals that she is currently experimenting with artificial intelligence, though not in a creative capacity. By the time the exhibition travels to Brisbane next June, she hopes to implement “A-Iris” which will be able to answer questions posed by visitors in real time. Her designs, she insists, will be born from her imagination alone. “I would not want to give away the part that I think is most personal and most human. I think creativity is one of the most valuable things we have as human beings.”
“Iris Van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses” runs through April 28, 2024 at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
