Iris van Herpen - Fashionista

Iris van Herpen

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Business

How 3-D Printing Could Change the Fashion Industry For Better and For Worse

3-D printing could have tremendous effects on the fashion industry. It has the potential to do great things for the industry: create shorter lead times for designers, offer the ability to produce things in smaller quantities, and create easy personalization. On the flip side, 3-D printing could render many jobs in the manufacturing industry obsolete, as well as present some tricky legal issues surrounding copyright.

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Style

Where Are the American Haute Couture Designers?

The fall couture shows ended last week, with successful collections from established designers like Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel to newer, more experimental collections from the likes of Iris van Herpen. Countries like Germany, France, Italy, and Belgium all had talent represented on the runways. But if you're looking for a great American name in haute couture, you're going to have to dig deeper.

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Six Couture Designers to Watch

Paris might be home to a legacy of traditional Haute Couture masters, but it appears that, lately, the city has become aware of its experimental, cutting-edge potential (If London had its own couture week, these might be its budding stars). Here are six designers that would make Coco Chanel a tad restless.

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Iris Van Herpen Is Not Designing Katniss' Wedding Dress for the Next Hunger Games

Dutch designer Iris van Herpen showed another haunting and innovative couture collection in Paris Monday amidst rumors that she may have the honor of designing Katniss Everdeen's wedding dress for this fall's Catching Fire, the second Hunger Games installment. Herpen would be absolutely perfect for the job--her structural, futuristic aesthetic is very Capitol-esque. Only she's not doing it.

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Beauty

Fashion News Roundup: Condé Nast College Gets a Home, Jean Paul Gaultier x La Perla Returns, and Gucci Releases a Travel Collection

The Conde Nast College is no longer a myth. It will be opening in London's Soho district in January 2013. {Refinery 29} Didn't think a "killer red lip" could actually kill your job, did you? Neither did Francine Siddaway, until she was fired for wearing too much make-up. {Stylelist} Gucci has launched a year-round travel collection for those of us who need Gucci for every occasion. {WWD} Jean Paul Gaultier has released his second collaboration with La Perla {WWD}

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Iris Van Herpen Haute Couture Spring 2011: Digital Meets Art Meets The Real World

PARIS--Iris Van Herpen is perhaps one of the most creative designers we’ve seen during couture week. Her clothes are made from materials and techniques that are rarely seen in a fashion studio, ranging from plastics used for product design to methods used in architecture. Her collection yesterday was inspired by digital technology--and that was expressed both in technique and in design. Her clothes are made using various computer programs, which “allows me to obtain results that would be impossible to do entirely by hand," Iris told us about her trademark fish scale-like plastic materials, created out of thousands of superimposed, hair-thin strips. As for the clothes, they looked like they walked right out of Avatar, and we had to keep reminding ourselves we weren’t staring into our computer screen.

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Business

Iris van Herpen blends Couture with Technology

PARIS--Mechanical Couture, an exhibition which opens next week at Israel's Design Museum Holon, calls attention to the couture-tech courtship. So we thought it was time we caught up with Dutch designer Iris van Herpen, whose S/S 2011 collection includes a fossil-thin bolero made by what is essentially a 3D printer. From collaborations with Ecco leather, Rem D Koolhaas' shoe line United Nude and choreographer Nanine Lenning, Iris manipulates materials into structural explorations that have brought weary showgoers to their feet. We tracked Iris to her Paris showroom to find out what it's like to go hi-tech...and to demand an explanation for her absence from London Fashion Week last month, where the 26-year-old designer has been showing since her graduation from talent incubator Central Saint Martins. Your shows are always jaw-droppers and a highlight of LFW, what made you bow out so soon before? I skipped LFW this season because after I showed a few pieces at Amsterdam (Fashion Week). I got a lot of nice orders and I was crazily busy with them at the time. Also the most difficult pieces were ordered, like the water dress and the huge water collar! I did not think I would ever to be able to make them again, but, surprisingly, I am doing it at the moment.