2012
IRIS VAN HERPEN
Dress
Autumn/winter 2012–13 haute couture
Iris van Herpen, Dutch, born 1984
Black PVC
Gift of Iris van Herpen, in honor of
Harold Koda, 2016 (2016.185)
1951
CHARLES JAMES
Ball Gown
1951
Charles James, American, born Great Britain, 1906–1978
Ivory silk satin
Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Coulson, 1964 (2009.300.1311)
Iris van Herpen’s interdisciplinary collaborations and innovative use of 3-D-printing technologies have placed her in the vanguard of twenty-first-century fashion. For her autumn/winter 2012–13 “Hybrid Holism” haute couture collection, van Herpen took inspiration from artist Philip Beesley’s 2010 responsive architectural installation Hylozoic Ground. The biomorphic shape of this dress reflects the classical notion of hylozoism, which suggests that all matter is animate. In contrast to the fitted bodice, the skirt’s overlapping layers of black PVC undulate around the body like a living organism.
The otherworldly silhouettes in van Herpen’s collection recall Charles James’s fashions of the 1940s and 1950s. Van Herpen’s plastic lobed forms mimic the crescent-shaped puffs in this gown of ivory silk satin. James often modified and refined his designs over a period of years: he originally designed this silhouette, supported by an excess of draped fabric at the front and back of the hips, in 1948, and it reached its greatest dimensions in 1951.
The otherworldly silhouettes in van Herpen’s collection recall Charles James’s fashions of the 1940s and 1950s. Van Herpen’s plastic lobed forms mimic the crescent-shaped puffs in this gown of ivory silk satin. James often modified and refined his designs over a period of years: he originally designed this silhouette, supported by an excess of draped fabric at the front and back of the hips, in 1948, and it reached its greatest dimensions in 1951.