Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen takes up art

Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen, whose regular clients include Beyoncé, Bjrk and Tilda Swinton, is known for her dazzling haute couture pieces that resemble sculptures.

She now wants to show that the equation also works the other way: she is not a fashion designer but an artist who creates pieces for the body.

Van Herpen is planning an art exhibition, called Hybrid, that took a year to plan but will last just 45 minutes on June 24, as part of Paris Haute Couture Week.

Why only 45 minutes? It's shorter than a yoga class, a few episodes of Netflix or a nap.

Compared to her usual Fashion Week presentation, the designer said, it's actually long.

Normally, we do a parade that only lasts 15 minutes because the public moves from one parade to another. So it's a very long time for this setup, she said. This show is truly a hybrid performance, she added. There are live artists doing the installation and it will be physically intense.

On a recent afternoon, van Herpen hosted a journalist in his spacious studio in the center of Westerpark, a complex of former electricity company buildings set in a leafy park in western Amsterdam.

It is one of its two studios in the Dutch capital; Her sewing studio, a 12-minute walk from here, where she creates what she calls her bodywork, didn't have enough elevation to hang her larger new works of art. Here they hang 16 feet from the rafters.

In front of the arched windows framing the ever-changing clouds is a tulle curtain decorated with swirling shapes made from dried splashes of oil paint and dyed silks. It is one of his last pieces, The Weightlessness of the Unknown, among the sculptures which will be exhibited in Paris.

Upstairs, three more strips of tulle stretched along steel poles provide a canvas for pleated silk organza creations and 3D printed objects. The decorative motifs could be prehistoric fossils, skeletons or birds that have fallen to decay on a beach or rather an imaginary combination of the three.

My work has always been interdisciplinary, she continued, and I really feel a strong connection between art, architecture, science and couture. That's what I'm doing with the exhibition, she added, trying to let go of the limits we set for ourselves, as creators and for the public.

Tulle, silk and 3D printing have long been van Herpens' materials of choice, which she has used to create dresses and headpieces that are both regal and avian. Her fashion pieces are both futuristic and primordial, referencing her fascination with science and anthropology, as well as contemporary art.

But after collecting 15 years of looks for a major retrospective, Sculpting the Senses, at the Museum of Arts Decorative In Paris (closed in April) and creating custom dresses for Queen Mxima of the Netherlands and the first lady of France, Brigitte Macron van Herpen realized she had another ambition.

Creating work that is not tied to the human form is exploring a new area within my own creative process, she said. The body is such a preoccupation that for me it was really about finding freedom. I wanted to see what I do beyond the body, because there is more to me, I think, than just sewing.

It was also, in part, about slowing down. Until 2023, van Herpen had produced biannual shows of his collections for 17 years. In January, she decided to skip the spring 2024 collection showcase in Paris to focus on her new works.

Van Herpen calls the resulting exhibition a hybrid art installation, which will include nine works in total: four large works in her Westerpark studio and five others that will incorporate people, whom she describes as performers.

They will not walk down a runway, as models do in a typical fashion show, but will be suspended, using an invisible construction, which will allow them to stay in place. During the one-off show, she explained, the performers will largely remain still and in the air.

She admitted that presenting the works in this way would be a real challenge. You shouldn't feel dizzy, she added. You have to be very grounded.

Because she expects audiences to include the fashion press, museum curators and other art world figures, she believes the 45-minute length will defy all expectations. For some people it will seem very long and for others it will seem very short, she said. Benches will be placed in the gallery space for spectators, like in a museum.

Van Herpen said she is currently in discussions with a museum to display the works more permanently, starting in early 2025. But she could not yet disclose details.

Its tulle fabric, both translucent and durable, is often used in ballet costumes, recalling that van Herpen was once a dancer. On this shimmering surface, she added sculptural elements such as layers of oil paint, covered with a thick layer of impasto, and patterns in hand-pleated silk and 3D printing.

For one of the new works, Ancient Ancestors, she drew inspiration from research carried out by Emmanuel Fargé, French biochemist at the Institut Curie, a cancer research and treatment center. Farge discovered that the cellular structure of primordial marine organisms was determined, in part, by the movement of waves.

The 3D sculptural elements embedded in the tulle resemble skeletons of horseshoe crabs and seabirds. The structures refer to the past but also to the future, because these organisms are constantly evolving, van Herpen said.

She described the two largest hanging sculptures, The Weightlessness of the Unknown and The Embers of the Spirit, as self-portraits, although they are totally abstract and more reflective of her emotional state.

In recent years, her inner life has focused on transformation, she explained. She left Amsterdam with her boyfriend and collaborator, Salvador Breed, to The Twiskea wetland nature reserve about a half-hour's drive north of the city, known for its many bird species.

On long daily walks with her dog, she explains, she often reflects on nature's ability to decompose and regenerate. I now focus more on a transition rather than a fixed state of being, she said.

Does Van Herpen hope to continue to progress in the field of art and, perhaps, move away from the constraints of creating clothing for the human body?

I can never see the future, but I know it's permanent, she said, referring to her move into fine arts. I am a person who needs these different influences; if I focus on just one thing, it just doesn't give me the right momentum.

She added: “I'm not leaving sewing, but I'm not leaving this other person either. » She paused, searching for the precise word dimension. I definitely intend to take the liberty of working on the pieces that I feel need to be released at that time.

Hybride, the new exhibition by Iris van Herpens, takes place on June 24 at 11:30 a.m. at 53 boulevard Haussmann in Paris.