For Fashion Iconoclast Iris van Herpen, 'Nature Is the Best Artist'

"Coral systems, skeletons, living alga, water, the coil of a snake, and the movement of a bird's wings are just some of the natural phenomena that have fed into van Herpen's visual language. Her couture pieces borrow the natural world's rhythms and structures, adapting them into gravity-defying garments."

""Nature is the best artist that we have on this planet," she told me during a preview of the show. "To look at a fossil that's 80 million years old, if you really try to comprehend that time, you realize how ephemeral we are as human beings," she added. "That is almost the opposite of fashion that we know today.""

"Here, her most iconic works-designs for Lady Gaga and Björk, among them-are paired with paintings and sculptures by ​​contemporary artists including Agostino Arrivabene, Courtney Mattison, Tara Donovan, and Heishiro Ishino. Illustrations by naturalist Ernst Haeckel pop up, as do a 50-million-year-old fossil and a copy of Ovid's Metamorphoses . Various sections are dedicated to her myriad fascinations with biology, technology, Surrealism, and the cosmos."

"They paint a picture of a designer whose approach to fashion is far from traditional. For instance, while the human form may be her canvas, van Herpen emphasized she's more keyed into what's happening under the surface."

The exhibition presents Iris van Herpen’s two decades of work through biomorphic creations shaped by natural forces far older than human history. Coral systems, skeletons, living algae, water, snake coils, and bird wing movement inform her visual language. Her couture adapts natural rhythms and structures into garments that defy gravity. The show includes more than 140 tactile, kinetic, intricate pieces and pairs iconic designs with paintings and sculptures by contemporary artists. Naturalist Ernst Haeckel illustrations, a 50-million-year-old fossil, and a copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses appear alongside themes spanning biology, technology, Surrealism, and the cosmos. The focus centers on inner workings beneath the human form rather than surface display.

Read at Artnet News