Iris Van Herpen’s Meta Morphism Collection Brings 3d Digital Printing And The Natural World Together With Flair And Bravura

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Iris Van Herpen showed her new Couture collection 'Meta Morphism' ~ celebrating her 15-year anniversary.

For this collection, Iris van Herpen explored the depths of the body in post-human realities to hold a lens on our intangible identities and shifting society with hyperreality at the horizon.

Through 'Meta Morphism’, Van Herpen expresses the body as an elusive system, rooted in transcience.
While the collection is inspired by post-humanism, it speaks to a greater message of introspection and reflects on Ovid's Magnus opus poem ‘Metamorphoses’, written around the 1st century.

At the time of Ovid’s writing, the act of metamorphosis was appreciated in relation to humanity and its place amongst nature, yet Ovid’s retelling exists a relevance today, navigating the ramifications of technology that is constantly complicating the definition of our identity.

With the ability to recreate our digital twins, the space of soul-searching, losing a sense of self, and finding new realities, are life lessons.

Meta Morphism ~ examines the ancient visions of Ovid’s mythology through modern themes of transhumanism, where man and technology exist in eternal fluctuation.

A tale of objectification, Daphne was the first love of the god Apollo but met with unrequited affection, a parable of lust in the face of rejection.

The Meta Morphism look is embodying the very moment that Daphne transforms into a laurel tree, diffusing the creation of plant and bone structures growing together.

This look imagines a future hybrid of Daphne’s myth in which the body is boundlessly trans-formed and where man and nature are indistinguishable.

The dress is created from transparent white silk that is framed into three-dimensionally laser-cut leaves that are heat-bonded with upcycled mylar to grow and branch upwards from her chest, embodying the myth's moment of Daphne's transformation into a laurel tree.

Fine crystal beads are embellished from the tips of the leaves, creating a shimmering halo.

The ‘Singularity' jumpsuit is made from Plantlike body embellishments that are sustainably 3D-printed using left-over cocoa shell beans in collaboration with @Magnum Vegan and @NicholasKoscinski @Eric_Klarenbeek @Maartje_Dros

Diffusing the creation of plant and bone structures growing together, the body embellishments are then electroplated with copper and draped with ocher-colored overstock organza into a jumpsuit silhouette that spins down dramatically from a sculptural thumb-ring.

Resounding the thematic tensions between artifice and nature, the collection is built around three myths, the story of Arachne, Narcissus and finally the story of Daphne and Apollo.

The tragedy of Arachne is translated in fine laces that are gradient dyed and trapped in embroidered webs, causing the trapped spiderwebs to float.

Other looks are designed as if Arachne is still weaving them, hundreds of unspun threads float and spin around the body.

The myth Narcissus is expressed through translucent layering and reflective textures of growth that speak to a greater message of introspection.

Transparent voluminous drapes echo around the body like ghosts.

The ‘Narcissus’ gown and coat express the power of self-creation and the contradiction of how self-obsession can ultimately cause losing your sense of self.

The Narcissus gown is made from white ribbons that are hand-stitched onto black transparent glass-organza panels, creating a surreal artwork of echoing faces.

Ghostly suspending the body expresses the surreality of losing your sense of self.

The third poem of Daphne and Apollo is betokened through the finale look, embodying the very moment that Daphne transforms into a laurel tree, while the 'Glitched Growth' dress and other looks mimic the alternate stages of Daphne’s metamorphoses, diffusing the creation of plant and bone structures growing together.

These looks imagine future metaverse hybrids of Daphne’s myth in which the body is boundlessly transformed and where man and nature are indistinguishable.

This season, van Herpen collaborates with sculptor Casey Curran, bequeathing a prospective statue of a future Daphne, bursting from the centre of the runway.

Daphne’s sculpture transforms through herbose creatures blooming from her skeleton, at her chest appears a large crevice, revealing her mechanical heart pulsating inside, pertaining to the notion that the elusiveness of identity means that nothing can perish