Every colour in the world has already been invented – as has every silhouette. The only thing fashion has left, in terms of innovation, is fabric technology. For Iris van Herpen, fabric innovation also meant new ways of melding craft and the digital. The theme of the collection was lucid dreaming. Much of what Van Herpen creates arrives to her in that dream space between sleep and full consciousness. A place where many writers also create from, Van Herpen finds this milieu the space and time within which she can allow her subconscious creativity to take over. ‘When I design, the draping process most of the time happens to me unconsciously. I see lucid dreams as a microscope with which I can look into my unconsciousness. In this collection, I have tried to bring my state of 'reality' and my state of dreaming, together,’ she explained.
Van Herpen’s presentation had the audience and the models also seemingly merge into one, so to evoke a fused world of ultimate dimensions. Mirrors and optical light screens saw the viewers’ vision entirely dependent on angles and changing movements – as a way ‘to reflect the fine line between reality and unreality.’
The dresses were rendered using two different techniques. The Lucid dressings were part of the designer’s ongoing collaboration with the artist and architect Philip Beesley. Made of transparent hexagonal laser-cut elements, they encaged the wearer in structured dresses. They glistened like movable exoskeletons. The Phantom dresses were really incredible. They were made with a super light tulle to which iridescent stripes were fused. The collection also featured two 3D printed dresses, entitled Magma.
As the models walked on laser cut perspex ‘invisible’ wedges, they looked as if they were floating. Lucid dreamers to the end, these girls could seemingly fly.
