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The Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen is looking vaguely intrigued. “Are you an artist?” she says by way of introduction, surveying my living room over Zoom with a well-trained eye. I’m not, I admit, before realising she’s referring to the paintings behind me, which appear to have piqued her interest. She points to a decaying portrait by the English painter J. Newman-Holroyd, fascinated by its flaking patina and faded Imperial glory. From the outset, she is drawn to aesthetic, finish, and the complexities of art, much like her own intricate oeuvre. “It’s beautiful,” she says softly.

Long, honey-coloured hair ripples to her shoulders - a Pre-Raphaelite heroine come to life. She resembles John Everett Millais’ Ophelia - passively dynamic yet blessed with ethereal strength. But who is this woman really, and what does she actually do? She claims the clues are clearly embedded in what she produces. “Nowadays, people really like you to choose what you are. I always get the question, are you an artist or a fashion designer. I don't think there has to be a difference. I can be anything I want to be.”

For the uninitiated, van Herpen is responsible for some of the most audacious clothes the world has ever seen. Just don’t call them clothes. Even the term ‘fashion designer’ does not do her justice. She is, in fact, a bona-fide couturier, someone revelling in the act of bespoke creativity. A glorious hybrid of technical craftsmanship: 3D printing, laser cutting and tech-fabulous textiles - the work is body armour by way of futuristic sculpture, wearable architecture with its heart firmly on its sleeve.

For almost two decades, her fertile imagination, stoked by concept and fired by myriad reference points, has built a well-deserved reputation for excellence. Now an exhibition - Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses - brings her world to the southern hemisphere, introducing key pieces, previously only seen fleetingly on a catwalk, to a new and curious audience. A slightly different take to its previous incarnation at the Musee de Arts Decoratifs in Paris, she hopes it will resonate just as strongly on the banks of the Brisbane River as it did on the Seine.

“I was overwhelmed that Paris was so well received, but I'm equally excited about Australia and how people there will connect with what I do. These are the themes I keep coming back to - universal themes, like nature and the interconnectedness of all the layers of life. I've been to Australia actually, when I was younger, and explored a lot of the protected natural areas there. What I took back from Australia is a very strong connection to nature. The concept of the exhibition is fairly highbrow but it's so visual and so immersive I believe they will react to what is in front of them rather than any preconceived notions.”

Expect more than pretty dresses on redundant mannequins. The show, retrospective but equally forward-thinking, deftly illustrates all the things she holds dear. Van Herpen is the da Vinci of design, flying between disciplines with consummate ease, merging art and science into irrefutably vivid shapes. Conventional laws of understanding do not apply to the meaning of her art. “It's nice that you refer to that because it's a really important part of the work,” she offers. “I haven't spoken about this a lot but I think beauty in itself is a language, a language that we all carry. Within nature it's very powerful and dominant. My work is so influenced by nature and the dynamics of attraction, and the energy that it provokes. When you are able to attract each other it's such a powerful energy, such a primitive life force. It's a playful energy to work with as well. It’s the energy of freedom, of self-expression in its most personal sense.”

Van Herpen is big on nature. As a curious inhabitant of the natural world she successfully draws elements of this environment: water, ice, amorphous creatures, stripped-back anatomy - and, with nothing short of alchemy, builds a kind of wearable art that reflects this deep-seated passion. The exhibits are often fragile - butterflies blown up to peacock-like proportions. “It’s true, I love the language of illusion,” she offers. “Some butterflies have the markings of eyes on their wings - they’re pretending to be something else, and I think that’s a very playful energy. Some concepts keep coming back to me: synaesthesia, the mixing of the senses, or hypnosis, or lucid dreaming. It's all the psychic influences that are shaping our daily sense of reality.”

As you may have gathered, the designs transcend fashion. To refer to them as mere garments does them a colossal disservice. Yes, they adorn the body in ways which resemble recognisable outlines, but this is where the relationship ends. Other designers have played with structure and adornment, but never at this level. These are rarified exoskeletons, suits of armour crafted from gossamer and angel breath and scented by ambition. And yet they are not just the flights of fancy this might suggest. The sculptural masterpieces that will fill Brisbane’s Gallery of Modern Art have a reason to exist, light years away from the disposable landfill of mass consumerism.

“I’m a reader. she explains. “There are writers who have influenced me. Do you know Peter Sloterdijk? He’s a theorist who talks about the fears we create, not only as a society, but also personally, which I think is a really beautiful way of looking at our identity. Another one is Ed Young. He talks about the senses of animals, which really relates to my exhibition. We are so dominated by our own senses that it's hard to distinguish the reality around us. But that's the essence of my work, to try and expand your perception of reality.” What sense could she not live without? “Oh, my sight,” she says emphatically. “I would be nothing without my eyes. My reality is in seeing.”

For all its abstract ambivalence, the work of van Herpen is easy to describe. Not because it is simple, but, she believes, because her output evokes such tangible emotion. “That's always the balance. There’s a lot of thought behind each piece, but that's personal to me. My work speaks its own language. It should speak to the senses.”

Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses opens on the 29th June, 2024. For more visit www.qagoma.qld.gov.au


Image Credits:
01. Iris van Herpen. Netherlands b.1984, Hylozoism dress, from the Sensory Seas collection 2020, Silk organza, duchesse satin, tulle, Print collaborator: Shelee Carruthers, Collection: Iris van Herpen. Photograph: David Uzochukwu, © David Uzochukwu.
02. Iris van Herpen (designer), Netherlands b.1984, Carla van de Puttelaar (photographer), Netherlands b.1967, Synergia Series 2021. Photograph: Carla van de Puttelaar © Carla van de Puttelaar.
03. Iris van Herpen. Photograph: © Robin de Puy.
04. Iris van Herpen (designer), Netherlands b.1984, Morphogenesis dress, from the ‘Sensory Seas’ collection 2020, Lasercut screenprinting mesh, duchesse stain, lasercut Plexiglas. Collaborator: Philip Beesley. Collection: Iris van Herpen. Photograph: © David Uzochukwu.
05. Iris van Herpen (designer), Netherlands b.1984, Syntopia dress, from the Syntopia collection 2018, Silk organza, lasercut crepe, Mylar, stainless steel. Collection: Iris van Herpen. Photograph: © Sølve Sundsbø.
06. Iris van Herpen (designer), Netherlands b.1984, Crystallization top, from the Capriole collection 2011. Collaborator: Daniel Widrig. Collection: Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris. Photograph: © Sølve Sundsbø.
07. Iris van Herpen (designer), Netherlands b.1984, Aeriform dress, from the Aeriform collection 2017, Lasercut stainless steel, tulle. Collaborator: Philip Beesley. Photograph: © Sølve Sundsbø.
08. Iris van Herpen (designer), Netherlands b.1984, In collaboration with Isaie Bloch, Skeleton dress, from the Capriole collection 2011, 3D printing of polyamide (Selective Laser Sintering). Collaborator: Isaïe Bloch, Collection: Iris van Herpen. Photograph: © Luigi and Iango.