Iris van Herpen ~ Sonic Starquakes

Iris van Herpen’s latest collection, Sonic Starquakes, presented at Paris Haute Couture Week on July 6th, 2026, draws inspiration from sonic vibrating stars, the branching structures of exploding supernovae, the spiraling geometries of galaxies, and the turbulence of plasma. When astrophysicists first detected starquakes, they uncovered something profound about the nature of celestial bodies. Much like earthquakes on Earth, starquakes are waves that travel through a star, causing subtle vibrations across its surface. Stars are not silent objects suspended in space, but oscillating instruments, played by pressure waves moving through their plasma depths. The biggest stars produce the lowest, deepest sounds, like tubas and double basses, while smaller stars carry higher-pitched voices, like celestial flutes. The energy of plasma, the main physical ingredient of stars and the fourth state of matter, unites with the electromagnetism of the human body in the Helix Nebula dress. With no fixed shape or volume, plasma’s luminous cloud of charged particles is contained within two sculpturally floating lunar forms of hand-blown glass, which come alive in response to human touch. When the dress is worn, the body becomes a conductor of the plasma’s electrical field, altering and interacting with its energy. “For years, I have been drawn to the idea of creating a garment woven from energy alone. We have shaped couture through solids, liquids, living matter and even gas. This is the fir