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Beating Hearts and Bioluminescent Gowns: How Couture Week Captured Our Attention
Beating Hearts and Bioluminescent Gowns: How Couture Week Captured Our Attention

Elle

time11-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Elle

Beating Hearts and Bioluminescent Gowns: How Couture Week Captured Our Attention

Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy. Style Points is a column about how fashion intersects with the wider world. Ever since fashion's online audience grew to outstrip its offline one, designers have been crafting collections with our feeds in mind. Virality and good old-fashioned shock value became ways to claw into our consciousness, cutting through the morass of SEO results and doom-heavy headlines. And mere images alone don't do it for us anymore. Designers have increasingly ginned up videogenic moments—whether it be a living, 'breathing' runway or a musical performance—that will cut through the noise and stop us in our tracks, if only for a few moments. And while haute couture has long been a quieter realm, aimed at a hyper-specific audience and laser-focused on craft, it's lately been entering that fray. (After all, we all live under the same attention economy.) Daniel Roseberry, a true heir to the Elsa Schiaparelli school of all things shocking, has become a master of this art, creating conversation starters on and off the runway. This season, his Schiaparelli front row hosted Cardi B accessorizing with an actual raven (Poe would have a field day), and the collection included a gown with an anatomically correct heart that actually 'beat,' inspired by a Salvador Dalí piece. Roseberry's Instagram post of the piece drew almost 6 million views in one day. Then there was Iris van Herpen, perhaps couture's biggest wild card. Her collections have been inspired by everything from the mushroom network known as the 'wood wide web' to the unique properties of magnets. 'Sympoiesis,' meaning the interconnectedness of complex systems, was the title of her latest couture collection, and it looked at the links between the ocean, atmosphere, and the climate. Working with biodesigner Chris Bellamy, van Herpen transformed living bioluminescent algae into a glowing gown that quickly became the most talked-about look of the collection. And it broke through far outside the fashion bubble; even Nature magazine covered the news. Like Roseberry's tell-tale heart, it straddled the line between the living and the mechanical, a contradiction that seemed to be a throughline of the week. (Perhaps being immersed in AI has made us all the more hungry for the real.) While Roseberry and van Herpen stuck to the realm of the living, Glenn Martens decided to explore a different aspect of life: decomposition. His first foray for Maison Margiela marked one of the most anticipated designer debuts in a season packed with them. Against a backdrop of beautiful, deliberate decay, he delivered on every front, with bejeweled full-face masks and a crushed-candy-wrapper confection of a gown. Martens has shown that he knows how to create a spectacle, and with this collection, he outdid himself, drawing plaudits for the way he deftly incorporated so many Margiela signatures. For the Easter egg collectors, detailed show notes even broke down the references in each and every look. Robert Wun titled his collection 'Becoming,' and he looked at the way we transform ourselves every morning when getting dressed. It was a fairly simple starting point, but it was what he did with it that mattered. Few of us will don the giant hats and angular gowns that Wun put on his runway. But his tribute to the theatrical possibilities of style, down to a dress covered with bloody handprints and a fembot-shaped handbag, was a reminder that there's plenty of life left in this age-old medium.

Designer Iris van Herpen's Paris Haute Couture Week algae dress is actually alive
Designer Iris van Herpen's Paris Haute Couture Week algae dress is actually alive

Straits Times

time11-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Straits Times

Designer Iris van Herpen's Paris Haute Couture Week algae dress is actually alive

Belgian model Stella Maxwell presents the algae dress for Iris van Herpen during the Women's Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2025-26 collection show in Paris on July 7. PARIS – Couture, the oldest and most elite of the fashion arts, the pieces made by hand for the very few, can sometimes seem like a fossil preserved in an amber corset. Which is why Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen's work, both futuristic and deliberately kinetic, has always been so mesmerising: skirts that jounce like jellyfish, extrusions that tremble like palm fronds, and sleeves (or sleeve-like appendages) that flutter like butterfly wings. Even by her standards, however, the second look in the couture collection she showed in Paris on July 7 as part of Haute Couture Week was something else. It was actually alive. Made of 125 million bioluminescent algae known as Pyrocystis lunula that glow in response to movement (think the luminescent plankton that can make the ocean seem lit from within), the dress-and-leggings combination was grown in a gelatin-like substance that was then moulded into one of van Herpen's signature sci-fi anatomical lattice frocks. Wearing it, the model resembled a very regal, otherworldly crustacean. It had an aquatic tint and a squishy, jellylike veneer. And though it didn't exactly radiate megawatt beams when the model walked, it did emanate a soft blue haze. According to van Herpen, the look feels sort of visceral when worn. And for anyone wondering, it was not smelly. More of an experiment than an actual for-sale item, the outfit was, 41-year-old van Herpen said backstage, 'the next step in not being inspired by nature, but collaborating with nature'. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore ST will have Govt's 'full confidence and support' in its mission to stay relevant: PM Wong Singapore ST will aim to become an indispensable partner to S'pore's communities: Editor Jaime Ho Singapore Heartbeats & Headlines: ST's 180-year legacy comes to life in immersive exhibition Singapore Trusted news, smarter experience with new Straits Times website and app Singapore Man who killed 5-year-old daughter gets life sentence after he appeals against 35-year jail term Singapore Judge declines to void alleged sham marriage in S'pore, says it is for Parliament to decide Business OCBC CEO Helen Wong to retire on Dec 31; Tan Teck Long named successor Singapore More than 14,300 people checked during 7-week-long anti-crime ops Designer Iris van Herpen appears at the end of her Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2025-2026 collection show in Paris on July 7. PHOTO: REUTERS In other words, forget floral prints, or rose embroideries. Think biological symbiosis. The look was created in conjunction with Chris Bellamy, a biodesigner who began working on the project with van Herpen about five months ago. The algae were nurtured in seawater baths and then placed in a protective membrane (the one that became the dress), which has its own 'house' – a kind of free-standing immersion tank – with specially monitored conditions, including humidity, temperature and light. When it was not being worn, the dress was returned to its natural habitat – though even in the unnatural environment of a fashion show, the algae held their own (colour). Still, how long they will ultimately live, and what will happen to the outfit once they expire, is not exactly clear. 'No one knows!' van Herpen chortled. 'That's the beauty of it. It's very much like a human being in that sense. It needs eight hours of sleep, it needs sunlight, it needs not too much stress.' The point of the living dress, she said, as with the rest of her collection, was to force a rethink of our relationship with the ocean – a theme that has been part of her work since 2017, when she immersed musicians in tanks of water for a show. To that end, this season's show opened with a performance involving lasers that danced across a gown made of what the show notes called Japanese 'air fabric'. A performer exhibits during the presentation of creation for Iris Van Herpen during the Women's Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2025-26 collection show in Paris on July 7. PHOTO: AFP One look that resembled a translucent ivory Slinky trailing around the body was made of Brewed Protein, a fiber from fermented plant-based materials by the Japanese biotech company Spiber; another was formed from resin-coated silk, which resembled a wave caught in mid-froth. A model presents a creation for Iris Van Herpen during the Women's Haute-Couture Fall/Winter 2025-26 collection show in Paris on July 7. PHOTO: AFP As much as anything, however, her work, and especially the living dress, actually prompts a rethinking of our relationship with our wardrobes, and the way clothes need care in order to last. Not to mention a rethinking of the essence of couture. As the laboratory of fashion, couture is defined by experimentation and the sort of pie-in-the-sky imagination that is only possible when price and time have no limit. That's how you got a ruby crystal heart necklace that actually throbbed worn over a backward dress at Schiaparelli, the gown's torso – complete with breast plate – layered over the spine. It's how the team at Chanel, creating its final collection before the first show of new designer Matthieu Blazy, dreamed up the shaggy boucle 'skins' that resembled bison pelts but were actually made from tulle and feathers, worn over the shoulders of their barbarian bourgeoisie (the best things in an otherwise lacklustre show). Too often, however, couture seems as if it is preserving the know-how of the past – its embroideries, brocades and fairy tales – rather than trying to invent what's next. Van Herpen's work challenged all of that, simply by asking: What if a garment was not only constructed, but cultivated? NYTIMES

Iris Van Herpen Paris Fashion Week: Dutch designer debuts living dress
Iris Van Herpen Paris Fashion Week: Dutch designer debuts living dress

Sydney Morning Herald

time11-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Sydney Morning Herald

Iris Van Herpen Paris Fashion Week: Dutch designer debuts living dress

When it was not being worn, the dress was returned to its natural habitat – though even in the unnatural environment of a fashion show, the algae held their own (colour). Still, how long they will ultimately live, and what will happen to the outfit once they expire, is not exactly clear. 'No one knows!' van Herpen chortled. 'That's the beauty of it. It's very much like a human being in that sense. It needs eight hours of sleep, it needs sunlight, it needs not too much stress.' Who can't relate? The point of the living dress, van Herpen says, as with the rest of her collection, was to force a rethink of our relationship with the ocean – a theme that has been part of her work since 2017, when she immersed musicians in tanks of water for a show. To that end, this season's show opened with a performance involving lasers that danced across a gown made of what the show notes called Japanese 'air fabric.' One look that resembled a translucent ivory Slinky trailing around the body was made of Brewed Protein, a fibre from fermented plant-based materials by the Japanese biotech company Spiber; another was formed from resin-coated silk, which resembled a wave caught in mid-froth. As much as anything, however, her work, and especially the living dress, actually prompts a rethinking of our relationship with our wardrobes, and the way clothes need care in order to last. Not to mention a rethinking of the essence of couture. The Schiaparelli show included a reverse cleavage dress with a beating ruby heart. As the laboratory of fashion, couture is defined by experimentation and the sort of pie-in-the-sky imagination that is only possible when price and time have no limit. That's how you got a ruby crystal heart necklace that actually throbbed worn over a backward dress at Schiaparelli, the gown's torso – complete with breast plate – layered over the spine. It's how the team at Chanel, creating its final collection before the first show of new designer Matthieu Blazy, dreamed up the shaggy bouclé 'skins' that resembled bison pelts but were actually made from tulle and feathers, worn over the shoulders of their barbarian bourgeoisie (the best things in an otherwise lacklustre show). Loading Too often, however, couture seems as if it is preserving the know-how of the past – its embroideries, brocades and fairy tales – rather than trying to invent what's next. Van Herpen's work challenged all of that, simply by asking: What if a garment was not only constructed, but cultivated? This article originally appeared in The New York Times . Make the most of your health, relationships, fitness and nutrition with our Live Well newsletter. Get it in your inbox every Monday.

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