Iris van Herpen’s Transforming Fashion Exhibition Bundled Into A Catalogue

No need to worry if you missed the exhibition ‘Transforming Fashion‘ of Dutch designer Iris van Herpen. The exhibition is bundled into a catalogue and published by the High Museum of Art, The Groninger Museum, highlighting van Herpen’s haute couture and showing insights through interviews. You can order it online, here.

About Transforming Fashion

Van Herpen is a pioneering voice in contemporary fashion. At the nexus of art, design, science, and technology, van Herpen’s stunning sculptural work expresses a bold vision that seamlessly melds traditional handcraft with cutting -edge technology, including 3-D printing. This exhibition catalogue documents the evolution of van Herpen’s couture through extensive photography and an illuminating interview, providing a rare view into the world and work of one of today’s most original fashion designers.

About Iris van Herpen

Iris van Herpen stands for a reciprocity between craftsmanship and innovation in technique and materials. She creates a modern view on Haute Couture that combines fine handwork techniques with digital technology. Van Herpen forces fashion to the extreme contradiction between beauty and regeneration. It is her unique way to reevaluate reality and so to express and underline individuality.

The essence of van Herpen is expressing the character and emotions of a woman and to extend the shape of the feminine body in detail. She mixes craftsmanship, using old and forgotten techniques- with innovation and materials inspired on the world to come.

“For me fashion is an expression of art that is very close related to me and to my body. I see it as my expression of identity combined with desire, moods and cultural setting. In all my work I try to make clear that fashion is an artistic expression, showing and wearing art, and not just a functional and devoid of content or commercial tool. With my work I intend to show that fashion can certainly have an added value to the world,  that it can be timeless and that its consumption can be less important then its beginning. Wearing clothing creates an exciting and imperative form of self-expression. ‘Form follows function’ is not a slogan with which I concur. On the contrary, I find that forms complement and change the body and thus the emotion. Movement, so essential to and in the body, is just as important in my work. By bringing form, structure and  materials together in a new manner, I try to suggest and realize optimal tension and movement.”

Iris her designs require every time an unique treatment of material or even the creation of complete new materials. For this reason, Van Herpen prefers interdisciplinary research
and often collaborates with other artists or scientists.