FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Blinded by the light

Blinded by the light

Swarovski honoured the 10th anniversary of Dutch conceptual fashion designer Iris van Herpen’s atelier and the launch of her debut crystal collection, “Designer Edition by Iris van Herpen for Swarovski”, at Paris Haute Couture week as part of her runway show, Aeriform.

Respected internationally for the futuristic drama of her collections, van Herpen stunned guests at Aeriform and the unveiling of her first-ever crystal collection for Swarovski. 
For Autumn/Winter 2017, Van Herpen produced an aquatic couture spectacle inspired by Danish underwater artists, Between Music, who performed sound sculptures on custom-built instruments while submerged in transparent water containers. It provided a haunting backdrop to the surreal couture creations that showcased van Herpen’s signature aesthetic, which encompasses science, digital technology, art, nature, and engineering. 
Describing Aeriform, she said: “Air and water are the structural and visual components of the 18 elaborate silhouettes, influencing the development of both the textiles and the garment construction, which is reflected in their volume, rippling patterning, and translucent layering.” 
A member of the Swarovski Collective since 2015, Van Herpen brings an unusual craftsmanship to her work, mixing old and forgotten techniques with extraordinary innovation and materials inspired by the future. Among them are crystals: her runway presentation included a dress made of tulle embellished with Couture Studs that were especially developed by Swarovski for her show.
Swarovski hosted a glittering reception at the Hotel d’Evreux, an 18th-century architectural gem on Paris’s Place Vendome, at which the Designer Edition by Iris van Herpen for Swarovski was unveiled. The eerily futuristic collection – her first for the crystal house –comprises Growing Crystal, which consists of other-worldly rhomboids and rectangles of fascinating, multi-layered complexity, and 3D Studs, a series of metal studs tipped with crystals at different heights, giving any 3D-studded surface an innovative, dynamic topography. Earlier, van Herpen had featured a black clutch in her fashion show that shimmered with light refraction from the Growing Crystals that adorned it.

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