Mylar, acrylic, silicon, banana leaf fibers, eco-leather, thermo-plaster polymers, polyurethane, glass organza and komon koubou are not fabrics one naturally associates with haute couture, but they are the raw materials of a sensational new exhibition ‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’ that opens in Paris this Wednesday.

Van Herpen is far from being a household name though her extraordinarily rarefied, ephemeral and technologically advanced haute couture ensures that she is widely regarded as one of the most original contemporary fashion creators.
 
Iris is very young – just 39 – to earn to earn a retrospective in the Museum des Art Décoratifs (MAD) a wing of the Louvre on rue de Rivoli. But she certainly merits it, after such a meteoric career. She was born in in 1984 in Wamel, a small town in south Holland; studied in art college in Arnhem; worked for Alexander McQueen and opened her own house in 2007 in Amsterdam.

By 2011, and still just 27, she was invited to join the Paris Chambre Syndicale beginning a series of brilliantly beautiful and mesmerizingly unexpected collections and shows presented in Paris.
 
Why always in Paris?

“Paris is the heart of couture. It is the history of couture and the future of couture,” van Herpen told FashionNetwork.com
 
Van Herpen’s fashion is a permanently evolving body of art, where technological innovations, 3D printing, chemistry, dance, performance art and unlikely fabrications meet to create a truly unique interdisciplinary language.

Her bio-morphic creations almost look like they have a life of their own, as if they had slid over to cover the subjects wearing them. Her aesthetic is the diametrical opposite of fast fashion – rarefied couture that is most often seen on concert stages and red carpets or art movies.
 
Plus, she can create in classical couture fabrics – like the silk organza, duchess satin and tulle ensemble seen in a hallucinatory décolleté gown worn by Jennifer Lopez. From the same ‘Sensory Seas’ 2020 collection, a gown made from cascading wave of PETG, or thermo-plaster polymer, and glass organza was donned by Lady Gaga.
 
“I have been working on this project for two years. It’s an incredible honor, it’s such an iconic place, I feel very proud to be here. Technology and nature are both embedded into the work. Technology is part of nature, and they can influence each other positively and negatively. I try to focus on the positive side,” explained the Dutch couturier.
 
Revealingly, the exhibition places multiple looks beside the artists, life forms and shells that inspired them. From the nautical and architectural neo conceptualist sculptures of Wim Delvoye seen beside Iris’ bone-like Nautilus mini cocktail, to the brilliantly gothic Robe Cathedral in printed 3D polyamide and cooper, made in collaboration with Isäie Bloch and later acquired by Groninger Museum.

 
While a molded silicone and microfiber bubble Robe Radiography stands before a disturbing plaster of a R-Evoluzione statue of human faces dissolving almost radioactively by Italian artist Enrico Ferrarini.
 
Is she an artist or fashion designer?

“Both, I cannot separate the two. I think fashion can be a form of art that can really transcend you. An element that I think is overlooked. My work is very focused on human metamorphosis. I believe that fashion and art can have that power to make you look at the world in a different way,” she concluded.
 
‘Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses’ is open in MAD from Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, until Sunday, April 28, 2024.