Iris Van Herpen is a Dutch contemporary fashion designer that specializes in Haute Couture. She received a degree from the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts Arnhem and later interned with Alexander McQueen. Her internship with McQueen really influenced her style of design and her ultimate fascination with creating pieces based on their story rather than wearability. Van Herpen is famous for her utilization of technology and unconventional materials in her collections. She takes advantage of technological innovations such as 3D printing and laser cutting to bring back the use of craftsmanship and handwork into her fashion pieces. All of Van Herpen’s collections relate back to nature and the incorporation of science to create elaborate pieces that not only display a fashionable aspect, but also shed light on the current environmental state. As the world of fast fashion continues to destroy nature, Iris Van Herpen is breaking the mold of traditional fashion techniques to produce innovative and nature-inspired work to shine light on her appreciation on the world we live in and preserving the natural resources.
Van Herpen’s collections create buzz that not only speaks on her use of technology, but her deeper meaning created in her collections. The fast fashion model has developed from a product-driven concept based on the manufacturing idea of “quick response,” developed in the U.S. in the 1980s. This moved to a market-based model of “fast fashion” in the late 1990s and the early part of the 21st century. There are four elements that determine fast fashion: price, manufacturing timeline, trend, and disposability. The current state of the fashion world is very unstable at the moment, and fast fashion is slowly deteriorating the environment, while creating many issues that not only affects designers, but producers and consumers as well.
Technology is ever evolving at such a rapid pace, which allows mass production of goods to become so accessible and cheap for consumers all over the world. The problem with mass production is the cost and effect it has on pollution, disposability, and overconsumption. Although fast fashion may seem like an economically savvy way to keep up with the latest trends, the overarching issue with fast fashion is the effect it has on the environment and sustainability.
The idea of fast fashion originally derived from the accessibility to technological advancements in the manufacturing and production side of the supply chain. Technology has expanded the world of fashion to not only reach a global scale, but also at a rate that is almost unthinkable. The use of technology in the entire process of creating a garment can make a 6-month process into a 2-week turnaround, and what would have taken months to make to storefronts is now available in retail stores in a matter of weeks. With such a fast pace process, comes the effect of labor discrepancies, environmental impacts, and consumerism that can’t be satisfied.
The number one issue with fast fashion is the issue with pollution, including the water waste, the chemicals, and the disposability. The idea of fast fashion has brought the idea of fast disposition, which relates to the idea that we can just throw away the cheap, low quality garments and replace with another. Rather than purchasing more expensive, timeless pieces of clothing, the new idea is to stay on top of fast moving trends while spending little amounts of money to achieve the “hottest look.” The issue that arises with this is the pollutants that are used to create the original garments, the water waste used to wash all the garments, and the chemicals and lack of disposability once the garments are thrown out.
Fast fashion is the second greatest polluting industries in the world. It is estimated that almost 80 pounds per person are disposed of each year. Overconsumption and quick turn-around have caused the consumers to throw away any garment that is no longer suitable to their wardrobe. One of the biggest misconceptions with disposing of clothes by donation is that very few items actually get recycled. Many of the items that are donated to collection centers, such as Goodwill, make their way to third world countries. The problem with the clothing being disposed is there is no good way to properly dispose of the materials in a safe and sustainable way. Just as there are landfills for trash, there are also landfills that accumulate the materials used for clothing.
Another large pollutant caused by the fast fashion industry is the water waste that is contaminated with toxins. The waste is largely related to the production of raw materials. A single shirt can dispose of over 2700 liters of water through the entire production process. The water becomes unrecyclable because it is filled with so many toxic chemicals used in the dyeing and manufacturing process. Cotton is one of the most toxic crops to produce in terms of chemicals utilized to transform cotton into usable material for clothing. The water can contain chemicals such as lead, arsenic, and mercury, all of which are poisonous to human consumption. Also, the toxicity of the pesticides used to grow cotton has created many environmental issues, and with cotton making up almost 20% of the fabrics used for clothing the issue is very relevant. Just like in “Silent Spring” the use of DDT was such a large issue, the issue that is created by many pesticides in today’s society goes without question on the health effects. These pesticides have been around for decades, and even though they are finally becoming a topic of discussion little is done to reduce the use or completely withhold the use of pesticides at all.
Although pollution is a huge issue with fast fashion, the depletion of nature and it’s natural resources are directly caused by the overconsumption of goods. Whether it be the air we breathe being polluted with toxins, the water we use being contaminated with mercury and lead, or the lack of disposability which creates waste runoff, our environment is inadvertently affected by the fashion world everyday. Natural resources are no longer available for use, and at the exponential rate of consumption, many resources will become unavailable if sustainable practices aren’t put into effect quickly. The planet simply cannot regenerate its resources quick enough to keep up with the fast pace of consumerism.
Although fast fashion may seem like a great idea to the consumer, the more research shows that fast fashion is slowly destroying not only the environment but also the fashion world. Designers can no longer keep up with the high demands of creating “trendy” looks that compete with the low prices of mass produced items. Companies such as H&M are able to create up to 18 collections in a year, which is very different than the standard 2-3 collections seen from fashion designers twice a year.
The question of is fashion art is subsided when looking at Iris Van Herpens work. Her collections aren’t about wearability, but rather the materials used and the allusion to nature. Van Herpen has a deep appreciation for the environment and the preservation of the natural resources, and uses technology to showcase those aspects in her work. She is a huge activist on nature, and all of her collections relate in some way back to the natural elements of the world we live in. Van Herpen utilizes technology to create sustainable pieces that bring discussion to her technique, craftsmanship, and purpose. Her fascination with technology has been used to show the ways that technology can benefit the fashion world, rather than just be used for harm and mass production. Van Herpen stated, “I try to create an alternative for the way fashion is made, to be more environmentally conscious with regards to material choices and techniques,” she says. “I’m interested in how materials can be bettered and techniques made more efficient.”
She is the first designer to utilize 3D printing into her pieces, which creates pieces that have texture and are tangible. 3D printing is still a very new technological advancement. Many of the first 3D printed objects weren’t usable; they just related the concept into a visual representation. As the technology expands and becomes more advanced, the use of this technology opens many possibilities to creating garments. The typical 3D printed item uses plastics, and hard materials, which can be seen in Iris Van Herpen’s collections, but as time goes on, her collections have incorporated many materials and slowly become more wearable.
Iris Van Herpen’s main goal when creating a collection is emulating the concept she is trying to convey. Her collections are science based, and take many hours of research, as well as craftsmanship to create. “Van Herpen is not driven by technology, Amneus says. It’s merely a tool for her art. ‘She will play around with 30 or 40 different materials, 30 or 40 different techniques, and sometimes she will choose the handmade version over the technology, even though the technology might be faster, because the handmade technique brings to fruition what’s in her head.’”
Van Herpen’s collections include so much detail and require hundreds of hours to produce. Her avant-garde pieces showcase the intricacy and innovative techniques used to bring her thoughts to reality for each theme. Each collection she produces focuses on a specific theme that exhibits nature in some form. To date she has produced over 20 collections, with themes pertaining to nature, animals, and natural phenomenon such as dreams and evaporation.
Van Herpen’s most recent collection titled ‘Aeriform’ examines the nature and anatomy of air and the idea of airborne materiality and lightness, creating negative and positive space with shadow and light. She also gathered inspiration from Between Music, an underwater sound artist. “Between Music have collaborated with deep-sea divers, physicists and neuroscientists over many years to develop a hypnotic biophonic sound sculpture that they perform on custom-built instruments while submerged in water. Their work transcends and transforms the conventional and natural relationship between our bodies and the elements.” Her couture collection is made of eighteen silhouettes inspired structurally and visually by the idea of air and water, each of which influenced the development of both the materials and garment construction, which is reflected in their volumes, rippling patterning and translucent layering. Aeriform features materials such as light metal lace, mylar bonded cotton, and soft suede welded to a metal heel. The construction of the garments utilizes modern technology as well as personal handwork and techniques.
This collection was presented in Paris during the summer Haute Couture show, and carried a largely monochromatic color pallet, ranging from stark white to different shades of grey. Soft silhouettes embodied the theme and were informed by the lightness of air, and prints that created the optical illusion of movement conveyed the fluidity of water. She was compelled to showcase the connection of both air and water, while forcing the elements to become one. Van Herpen’s materials used to produce this collection include organza that was printed with straight lines, and then pleated to create wave patterns on robe-like gowns, while narrow columns of silver stretch fabric were laser-cut in moiré patterns to achieve a similar look. Metals and unconventional materials were also used in the collection, while some of the items used laser cutting and 3D printing, others required hours of handwork to create the complete look.
Another Iris Van Herpen collection is called “Magnetic Motion” which was showcased in Spring 2015. This collection drew inspiration after she visited the Large Hadron Collider at Swiss scientific research facility CERN, where magnetic fields are created in excess of 20,000 times greater than the Earth’s. Magnetic Motion is a collection about the phenomenon regarding magnetic pull, and the force of attraction and repulsion. ““I find beauty in the continual shaping of Chaos which clearly embodies the primordial power of nature’s performance,” says Van Herpen describing the essence of the collection.”
Iris Van Herpen typically collaborates with other disciplines to create her collections. For her Magnetic Motion collection, she teamed up with a Canadian architect and a Dutch artist, by the names of Philip Beesley and Jolan Van Der Weil. The collaborative efforts of all artists were utilized to create a collection that embodied erasing the boundaries of nature and technology within the work. The overall goal throughout the collection is to disembody the relation of technology to craft a realistic vision of the magnetic force seen in the pieces.
The designer worked with methods that included injection molding and laser cutting on lattice like structures, 3-D printing and detailed architectural handwork on dresses, jackets, trousers, skirts and blouses giving them dynamic shapes and surfaces that encompasses the body’s movement. The three dimensional structure and the layering of the garments adds volume to the pieces.
Underling the idea of light and shadow, the minimalist color palette of black, white, midnight blue, and nude allows Van Herpen to concentrate on the garments’ structure. Networks of fine lace veil combined with the iridescent glow of crystalline structures made from plastic showcase the contrast use of conventional materials verse unconventional. Also, cellulose triacetate feathers extend from soft fabrics to create the illusion of shadows and dimensions. The controlled structure of the clothes is counteracted by the chaotic designs of the accessories, which were created using a technique, which recreates the natural occurrence of magnetic pull. The shoes, belts, necklaces and clutches were “grown” using magnetic fields, giving each piece a unique design original to itself.
The third collection of Iris Van Herpen, which embodies the use of technology, science, and nature, is titled Lucid. Lucid refers to the concept of lucid dreaming, which when the dreamer is conscious of the dream state and therefore is able to exert a degree of control on what is happening. The idea of taping into ones unconsciousness and exploring the brain’s functionality of control is the theme of the collection.
The fashion show connected the audience to the models, by creating an intimate space filled with seventeen large optical light screens (OLF). The lighting on the screens and the small space produced an illusion that effected the audiences’ perception, and created distorted visions of the clothing that emulated the fine line between reality and fantasy. The two main design techniques, seen throughout the collection, are the lucid looks and the phantom dresses. The lucid looks were created in collaboration with artist Philip Beesley, and are made using laser cut fabrics in the shape of a hexagons connected to translucent, plastic tubes. The design gives the impression of an exoskeleton to the model’s body, and causes the audience to lose perception of the body. The phantom collection utilizes white tulle fused to shiny stripes of material that reflect light to give illusion to the silhouette on the garment.
In this collection, Van Herpen stitched together 5,000 3D printed pieces to create a single dress. As well as laser cutting and two 3D printed dresses, she used flexible TPU printing to design a webbed material that used polyamide as the resource. Even the shoes created the illusion of hovering when fusing laser cut leather to a translucent platform. The collection in itself caused distorted perception, and the use of OLF screens reflected double images and a rainbow-colored reflection depending on the angle and movement of the models. Lucid was presented as an haute couture collection in Spring of 2016.
As Iris Van Herpen continues to break the mold of the traditional fashion industry with the utilization of technology, incorporation of architecture and other art forms, and embodiment of nature and scientific discovery, she creates a phenomenon for her collections as well as her message. As she shines light on the use of technology for the better development of the industry, she also alludes to the destruction of the natural world and the resources provided. Her collections create buzz due to the craftsmanship, but also cause the audience to question her purpose behind her work. She pushes the limits and innovates new techniques and materials everyday to be placed into her vision of a collection, and in doing so causes a reaction to question whether technology in fashion can be used for good rather than harm the industry through mass production and fast fashion.