Iris van Herpen on view at NOMA

From February 21 through May 28, 2018, designs by Iris van Herpen are featured in the new exhibition “A Queen Within: Adorned Archetypes” at New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA).

Iris van Herpen, Snake Dress, Capriole Haute Couture 2011, M. Zoeter x Iris van Herpen

About the exhibition

Experimental gowns, headpieces, and jewelry by avant-garde fashion designers such as Alexander McQueen, Gucci, and Iris van Herpen investigate symbols of womanhood and challenge conventional notions of beauty. More than 100 articles of daring fashion are presented in a dramatic gallery design that explores seven archetypal personality types, including Sage, Magician, Enchantress, Explorer, Mother Earth, Heroine, and Thespian.

There are two gowns and one film by Iris van Herpen in the A Queen Within exhibition. The show also includes a gown from her “Seijaku” series based on sound patterns turned into fabrics. This exhibition shows process film “Between the Lines” about the work:

About Iris van Herpen

Contemporary Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen has won international acclaim as one of the most visionary designers of the twenty-first century. Van Herpen takes fashion into the future. Credited with introducing 3-D printing to fashion, the designer seamlessly blends high-tech processes with traditional handwork, creating imaginative sculptural garments from materials as diverse as metal umbrella ribs, industrial yarns, woven metal, leather strips and transparent acrylic. Her work has been worn by celebrities including Lady Gaga, Tilda Swinton, Beyoncé, and Bjork and has graced the runways of Amsterdam, London, and Paris. During a runway show in 2015, she used robots to print a dress over Game of Thrones actress Gwendoline Christie.

While studying at the prestigious ArtEZ Institute of Arts, Arnhem, van Herpen held internships with Alexander McQueen in London and Claudy Jongstra in Amsterdam. In 2011, at age 27, van Herpen became the youngest person to exhibit in the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week, and in 2014 was awarded the highly prestigious ANDAM Award. Her designs are currently featured in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Her unique aesthetic has been lauded by TIME Magazine, InStyle and Women’s Wear Daily, among other notable publications. Van Herpen’s 2006 graduation collection Machine Jewellery demonstrated her interest in the visualization of elusive concepts and intangible elements and her inventiveness in material use and treatment. A year after graduating, she began designing womenswear collections under her own name.