In the midst of curating Sculpting the Senses, her 16-year retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Iris van Herpen uncovered a missing piece in her creative legacy: her early love of sculpture and painting. Although renowned for her ethereal couture and background in classical dance, van Herpen was equally steeped in visual art throughout her upbringing.
Parish Haute Couture Week
At Paris Haute Couture Week, she unveiled not just a fashion collection but an immersive experience—showcasing her iconic avant-garde designs alongside her debut aerial sculptures. This wasn’t just a runway. It was a multisensory exhibition where art and fashion coexisted in perfect, weightless harmony.
Sculpture and Fashion
The show, titled Hybrid, marks a turning point for the maison. “Even though we call one practice ‘Haute Couture’ and the other ‘art,’ to me, it’s one universe,” van Herpen noted. Her process of moulage—draping fabric directly on the mannequin—is sculptural by nature, and this show made that connection literal.
Suspended in space, four monumental tulle-based sculptures—designed in paired compositions—hung like celestial beings. Crafted using innovative techniques and stretched across steel frames, they echoed the same weightless elegance that defines van Herpen’s couture.
Interwoven with the static sculptures were living artworks—models elevated and sculpted mid-air, their bodies part of the installation. These living canvases forced the viewer to confront questions of human dominance, environmental kinship, and interspecies coexistence. As van Herpen herself said, “At my home, I don’t consider the garden as being mine, but a space shared with all life forms. The wilder, the better.”
Sensorium Dress
That philosophy breathed through the gowns, too. Each design pulsed with technical precision and poetic meaning. From the Umwelt and Aeromorphosis gowns—shimmering with gradient pearls—to the Ataraxy gown sculpted with a heat gun, the pieces defied both gravity and logic. The Ecosophy gown blended 3D-printed elements with lace and organza, while the Sensorium dress paid homage to Japanese obi fabrics with minimalist grace.
Rather than present the collection in traditional runway chaos, van Herpen invited guests to move slowly, choose their own path, and engage with the garments as they would fine art. “These looks took many months to make,” she said. “So the importance of slowing down is not only present in the work itself but also in how people perceive them.”
The show didn’t just expand the possibilities of fashion—it dissolved the borders between it and art. With Hybrid, Iris van Herpen didn’t just deliver couture. She delivered a new lens through which to experience beauty itself.
Picture Courtesy: Iris van Herpan
