From sci-fi to sustainability: The radical fashion of Iris van Herpen
She’s not just dressing A-listers such as Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Michelle Yeoh – she’s rewriting the rules of couture with eco-conscious designs
[SINGAPORE] At a recent press conference, a young fashion journalist took to the mic, gushing about how she and her Gen Z friends are huge fans of Iris van Herpen. It’s easy to see why. Van Herpen’s avant-garde creations – worn by pop iconoclasts such as Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Grimes, Rihanna and Bjork – look more suited for a sci-fi fantasy than a conventional runway. Her sculptural, otherworldly pieces don’t just turn heads – they captivate and fuel the imagination.
But beyond their potential virality on Instagram and TikTok, van Herpen’s designs stand for something deeper – namely, sustainability. In contrast to the fast fashion cycle that many top designers engage in, her approach is slow, deliberate and experimental. She releases just one collection a year, committing months to research and innovation rather than chasing profit margins. Her vision isn’t about mass production – it’s about redefining what fashion can be.
Her latest exhibition, Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses, is now showing at Singapore’s ArtScience Museum, mounted in collaboration with Musee des Arts Decoratifs from Paris. With more than 140 designs on display, the pieces are a testament to both her artistry and commitment to sustainability. The exhibit highlights her collaborations with scientists, environmentalists and engineers – proving that couture can be as eco-conscious as it is breathtaking.
A pioneer in merging fashion with technology, van Herpen made history as the first designer to send a 3D-printed dress down the runway. She continued to push the boundaries, incorporating biomaterials, ocean-reclaimed plastics, and banana-derived fabrics into her collections.
Her Amsterdam atelier operates more like a research lab, working to develop new materials that could reshape the future of fashion. The exhibition room highlighting some of the wondrous-looking materials found in her atelier deserve a long and close look – even if one’s tempted to return one’s gaze to the mesmerising dresses.
Notable pieces include the Heliosphere dress worn by Beyonce on her 2023 Renaissance world tour. Meticulously crafted over 700 hours by a team of 12 artisans, it features 980 falcate shapes, 3D-constructed by casting silver-marbled silicone into mirrored, laser-cut outlines. Each shape was individually stitched onto nude illusion tulle and interspersed with monochromatic Swarovski crystals, creating a shimmering effect.
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Similar skeletal motifs appear in the “Bene Gesserit gown” worn by Grimes to the 2021 Met Gala. The Bene Gesserit is the secret sisterhood in Frank Herbert’s Dune book series, the origins of whom were recently depicted in the HBO series Dune: Prophecy starring Emily Watson and Olivia Williams.
Other Instagrammable head-turners – and there are indeed very many – include the Medusa-inspired Snake dress once worn by Bjork, where some two dozen black snakes appear to be writhing around the woman who wears it. The Shift Souls dresses, with their soft, swirling layers of waves or clouds, have been spotted on Ali Wong and Fan Bingbing. The Hydrozoa dress, immortalised by Lady Gaga, plays with the fluid dynamics of water and marine life.
The entire exhibition feels like a dreamscape, constantly hovering between reality and illusion, challenging what’s possible.
Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses runs from now till Aug 10 at ArtScience Museum.
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