Iris van Herpen - Hacking Infinity

For her 'Hacking Infinity' collection, Iris van Herpen explores ideas of terraforming –modifying the biosphere of another planet to resemble that of Earth. The collection explores the possibility of new geographies and our place within them. The desire to reconfigure space finds expression in light performative materials, which interact with the movement of the body, biomimetic structures and saturated spectral colors. The central geometry is the circle, in both silhouette and cut. The spherical shape of planetary bodies and the symbol of a boundless ‘hackable’ infinity unfolds before us in a constant flow of mandala-like forms. Hand plisseed geometries both follow and frame the body while optical lighting film belts propose a polymorphic silhouette and challenge our perception of the figure in space.][This season Van Herpen has developed an extremely light, translucent stainless steel weave, hand burnished to imprint a sheen of nebula-like colors, whose infinite variations make each garment unique. Three-dimensionality is imperative to Van Herpen, and she continues her research with the creation of a 3D hand woven textile with designer Aleksandra Gaca. One weave like a mineral geology encases the body while the other cushions it with a light linear grid, threaded and fringed with a raw edge. Van Herpen pursues her collaboration with the Canadian professor of architecture Philip Beesley on the creation of digitally fabricated dresses made from a black garden of fractal