Mar 9, 2016 | By Tess
One of our favorite designers, Dutch-born Iris van Herpen, has done something slightly different with her recent Fall/Winter collection. That is, rather than blow the minds of her audiences like she usually does, she has instead opted to put them to sleep. The collection, recently unveiled at Paris Fashion Week and aptly called Lucid, was designed as an exploration of lucidity or the state of conscious dreaming, through which we can gain some control of our dreams.
The presentation of the collection, which involved a darkened room in which models stood behind optical light screens, gave audiences the impression that the models were actually split between their real selves and their dreaming selves- a truly eerie sight.
Van Herpen was inspired to explore the theme of lucidity in her work based off of her own feeling of unconscious when she is draping fabrics. As she explains, “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.”
The collection itself, which is divided into “lucid looks” “phantom dresses” and “magma dresses”, features some stunning pieces that reflect van Herpen’s unwavering talent and drive to innovate in fashion. The lucid looks in the collection, were made in collaboration with architect Philip Beesley—one of van Herpen’s frequent collaborators—and were made by laser cutting translucent hexagonal shapes and connecting them with clear flexible tubes. The effect of these designs is a dream-like exoskeleton which encases the wearer’s body. The phantom dresses stand in contrast to the lucid pieces as they are made from a light tulle material fused with iridescent stripes and make for a shimmering silhouette.
Van Herpen also stayed true to her 3D printing roots and used the technology to create two of the collection’s dresses—the 3D printed Magma dresses. The two dresses were created from a combination of flexible TPU filament and polyamide material, and were each made by stitching together 5,000 3D printed elements.
In addition to the collection’s unveiling at this past week’s Paris Fashion Week, Iris van Herpen commissioned a fashion film to be made of her fashion pieces, which was created by film director Nick Knight and stylist Amanda Harlech. The film uses optical effects like refracted lights and mirrors to bring its viewers on a dreamlike and trippy journey through Iris van Herpen’s Lucid collection. Check it out below:
Iris van Herpen, who recently made it onto our list of inspirational women in the 3D printing industry, was one of the first designers ever to send a 3D printed dress down the runway and has continued to this day to show both the fashion and 3D printing industry what an impact the technology can have on high-fashion design.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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