Event
Sensory Seas
Paris Haute Couture S-S 2020: Iris van Herpen
Iris van Herpen shows her latest collection
‘Sensory Seas’ at
Paris Haute Couture week on January 20th
2020 at Cirque d’Hiver, Paris.
For this collection, Iris van Herpen draws
inspiration from the sensory processes that
occur between the intricate composition of
the human body, mirrored with the fibrous
marine ecology of our oceans.
The first threads of inspiration came from the
Spanish neuroanatomist Ramón y Cajal. He
wanted to uncover something that no one had
yet understood. He questioned; how does
the brain engage in conversation with its
counterparts? Exploring our central nervous
system in microscopic detailing, Cajal doc-
umented his revolutionary findings through
anatomical drawings that are considered
amongst the world’s greatest scientific illus-
trations. Hunched over his microscope, he
merged science with art and brought to life
the threads of our enchanted biology to the
human eye.
Other inspiration stemmed from diving into
the deep depths of the Hydrozoa, a class of
delicately branched sea-life organisms. Shift-
ing between a polypoid stage and a medusa
stage, the Hydrozoa embroider the oceans
like aqueous fabrics, forming layers of living
lace.
‘Sensory seas’ holds a microscope over the
indelible nuances between the anthropolo-
gy of a marine organism, to the role of den-
drites and synapses delivering infinite signals
throughout our bodies. It enchants the atten-
32 C O S M O B I Z
M A G A Z I N E
tion of how two processes of torrential mes-
saging exist in an uninterrupted state of flux.
The collection consists 21 silhouettes that
illustrate a portrait of liquid labyrinths, where
dresses spill onto the floor in elegant train and
pigments gather in clouded pools of
blues and lilac, leaking into one another like
marble. Colourful meshworks of cellular ge-
ometry are translucently layered to create
deep-sea aquarelles. Soft shades of greens,
blues and gentle ochres are painted by
Shelee Carruthers and juxtaposed with the
warming reds of coral reefs.