– The Unknownness of Everything “We’re living in the alchemist’s dream right now.” Iris van Herpen’s designs are driven by her curiosity beyond fashion, drawing from disciplines like architecture, science,…

– The Unknownness of Everything “We’re living in the alchemist’s dream right now.” Iris van Herpen’s designs are driven by her curiosity beyond fashion, drawing from disciplines like architecture, science, and technology. She has worked with numerous specialists and artists, created costumes for the Paris Opera, and exhibited her work at institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. moreShe developed dresses for Tilda Swinton, Solange, and Björk, while also engaging with scientists at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, on her constant quest to develop new materials. It is an open-ended approach of collaboration and experiment, of channeling different influences and disciplines into a vision that is wide open and singular all at the same time. In a thrilling and expansive conversation with mono.kultur, Iris van Herpen talked about fashion as a form of art, the inspirations of lucid dreaming, and the exquisite sensation of skydiving. The issue presents a small retrospective of a decade of Iris van Herpen’s designs with images by some of the luminaries of contemporary fashion photography, including Inez & Vinoodh, Juergen Teller, Ellen von Unwerth, and Nick Knight.