This weekend I had the distinct pleasure of visiting the Iris Van Herpen exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art. The exhibit featured Iris Van Herpen’s work through her career as a Fashion designer. If you are not too familiar with her, or the work itself, that is okay. A little bit of information about her is that she is a Dutch fashion designer who specializes in totally unique materials for her designs. I’m not just talking about weird fabrics, I mean steel, metal, leather, and materials where the properties are distinctively chemicals. When you walk into the exhibit you are not just viewing fashion pieces, but instead art itself. Many of the pieces were meticulously crafted, with numerous leather work and maneuvering and weaving leather pieces.
The exhibit is divided into sections. Each representing her work along the years. You have pieces from collections when she first started to the current collection. Her first collection is Chemical Crows. The collection was named that because of her fascination with the bird, she said that many of them used to live near the studio where she worked. The creations were made out of numerous materials such as industrial yarn, feathers, metal chains and eyelets.
Her most recent collection which was released in 2015 is called “Hacking Infinity.” When Iris Van Herpen was creating this collection her main inspiration came from the planets and the universe. She used translucent fabrics to represent the luster of the galaxy, and implemented colors that resembled the nebula to create the effect. I enjoyed this one the most because you can really see how she has developed over the course of her time into a great designer.
If you are in the Pittsburgh area I would encourage you to see her exhibit as soon as possible, but if you’re not, you should look up her work and prepare to feel inspired. I know being in that exhibit I surely was.
Until next time!
Love,
Lola
xo
