Iris Van Herpen‘s designs are breathtaking. They steal your breath with a sheer wonderous, extraordinary quality, making you question for a moment whether you are really awake. Once you realise you are, you want to reach out and run a hand over the three dimensional, beautifully tactile textures. The Dutch designer is making waves and her work is being noticed, having just been awarded the ANDAM fashion award.
The price of €250,000 and year of mentoring from François-Henri Pinault, Kering chairman and CEO is not a bad prize. In fact, it’s rather amazing, especially considering the previoius winners include the likes of Anthony Vaccarello, and Julien David.
Aside from the design mentoring, huge accolade and prize money, Herpen’s hard work will also be rewarded with €110,000-worth of crystals from Swarovski, a commercial and strategic mentorship from the Tomorrow showroom, a purchase order from Hudson’s Bay Company, as well as an exclusive space in Galeries Lafayette’s flagship store in the city of lights, Paris, where two collections will be presented.
It’s always interesting to learn where a designer has cut their teeth, where they have honed their skills. A graduate from the prestigious fashion school the feeling of pushing boundaries of what’s possible and bending reality into a darker, more sublime serenity may stem from the designer’s time at Alexander McQueen; whose influence can be seen in the conceptual and rich work. Using technology to create her structual, 3D creations, her work is unique and makes you sit up with open eyes when you see the art modelled down a runway. You never know quite what will come next with Iris Van Herpen’s pieces, you just know it’s going to be incredibily interesting and potentially mind boggling.
If you want to be hypnoticised and fall into the Herpen world, you can see her design work in motion at one of her particualarly powerful haute couture shows here:
