Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Molly SJ Lowe
Sympoiesis: Where Organic Life Meets Human Design – Iris van Herpen Haute Couture
Urgency permeates every aspect of Sympoiesis, Iris van Herpen’s latest collection showcased at Paris Haute Couture Week in July 2025. Over the past nearly two decades, the couturier has collaborated closely with the natural rhythms of organic life and the technological demands of the human experience. In Sympoiesis, the increasing fragility of this interplay becomes apparent.
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Gio Staiano
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Molly SJ Lowe
To navigate the fractured symbiosis, Van Herpen turns to the vast, life-giving force of the ocean as a conceptual gateway, witnessing its ecological transformation and translating it into fabric through translucent layered textures, fluidized forms, and silhouettes that rise and fall like the tide. Guided by James Lovelock’s Gaia theory, the designer considers the ocean not as a single ecosystem but as part of a broader biospheric consciousness.
The ocean, atmosphere, and climate are all interconnected. They are not separate systems; they are closely linked in a self-sustaining fabric,” mused Lovelock. Therefore, the collection examines how we are one with the ocean, the largest and most vital ecosystem on our planet that produces more than half of the oxygen we breathe.
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Gio Staiano
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Molly SJ Lowe
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Gio Staiano
Seeking to convey not only the ocean’s perilous state but also its natural beauty in the collection, Van Herpen draws upon the freeform movement of Loie Fuller to embody the full spectrum of its forms, from its wild tidal power to its amorphous organisms. The pioneering muse and dancer, whom van Herpen has long admired as a trained dancer herself, embraced the unpredictability of fabric in motion, shrouding herself in silk and using bamboo wands to expand the improvised, phantasmal shapes she drew with her body. “She seems to be in dialogue with the forces of nature in her performances. In my eyes she was an alchemist of movement, light, and fabric, with which she merged dance into sculpture,” Van Herpen says.
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis – Phantoms Coral
Credit Molly SJ Lowe
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis – Phantoms Coral
Credit Gio Staiano
As the show begins with a performance created in collaboration with light artist Nick Verstand, Fuller’s movements are projected into the future as nearly invisible Japanese airfabric becomes a light painting. As if she is leaving her solid body, the large phantom silhouettes radiate organic light patterns that are activated by the dancer’s movements in real time. “The dancer becomes morphogenic and more-than-human, seeming to shimmer in and out of perception, often being swallowed entirely into this bioluminescent creature,” says Van Herpen. “The show opening is an emotionally charged performance on how we have drained the life out of our oceans. It is a call for protection.”
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Molly SJ Lowe
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Gio Staiano
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis – Biolume Corset
Credit Gio Staiano
Sympoiesis explores this concept through a pioneering collaboration with biodesigner Chris Bellamy—creating a first-of-its-kind living installation inhabited by 125 million bioluminescent algae that emit light in response to movement. Grown in seawater baths over several months within a specialized nutrient gel, the Pyrocystis Lunula algae were molded into a protective membrane and carefully cared for in conditions that mimic their natural marine environment, with humidity, temperature, and circadian rhythms all adjusted to meet their specific needs.
The chamber where the live look is nurtured becomes, therefore, a microcosm of the ocean’s delicate balance. Caring for the garment and for the 125 million Pyrocystis Lunula it contains requires a symbiotic relationship and completely redefines creation traditions, as the garment is cultivated rather than built.
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Gio Staiano
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Molly SJ Lowe
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis – Anima Munid
Credit Molly SJ Lowe
As the living look emerges, a biosphere light portal expands around it—another Verstand light sculpture—and a hopeful turning point is offered in the meeting of an animated ecosystem and a sacred sanctuary. The ecological choreography and unbound energy flowing through the collection now become not relics of the past but gateways to an abundant future.
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Gio Staiano
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Molly SJ Lowe
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis – Tridacna
Credit Gio Staiano
A bespoke fragrance by master perfumer Francis Kurkdjian unfolds like a wave as each look emerges to create an immersive and evocative multi-sensory experience, expressing the rich depths of underwater life—mysterious yet luminous. “Perfume is an invisible wave, a breath of the soul that may prolong the movement of a garment,” says Kurkdjian about the collaboration. “For Iris Van Herpen, I wanted an olfactory score that extends the poetry of her silhouettes, a fragrance like a full immersion: deep, aquatic, familiar yet almost unreal, surreal. I imagined a sensory and luminous flow, enigmatic and vibrant.”
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Gio Staiano
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis – White Dohrnii
Credit Gio Staiano
Van Herpen’s strong commitment to exploring new textile technologies influences the entire collection, and the idea of life is vividly expressed in another collaborative piece — a new kinetic design created with artist Casey Curran. Connected by an undulating golden coil-vein armature, delicate wings flutter softly in a wave-like pattern, their silhouette inspired by a microscopic view of bioluminescent algae’s structure.
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis – White Dohrnii
Credit Molly SJ Lowe
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis – Oceanic Omen
Credit Gio Staiano
The designer was “turned upside down” by David Attenborough’s documentary ‘Ocean’, a powerful look at the ecological importance of the seas and marine life, the vast number of undiscovered species, and the scale of climate damage and human destruction. But it also offered hope by showing how marine wonders recover much faster than expected when protected in sanctuaries, known as ‘safe zones’.
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Molly SJ Lowe
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis – Biolume
Credit Gio Staiano
The wonder of the Dohrnii, the immortal jellyfish, is captured in Japanese airfabric that drifts like currents suspended within moon-shaped supports laser-cut from translucent carbon fiber. “Gradient dyed from sweet peach to deep plum, the silhouettes dissolve in motion, as if painted by currents beneath the surface,” says van Herpen.
That oceanic symbiosis is also woven into the gravity-defying Noosphere look, where painterly shades of green and blue are dyed onto billowy organza panels, creating a dramatically deep-sea silhouette through featherlight carbon fiber bonings. Our connection with the ocean and its lifeforms runs deep, van Herpen tells us with this collection, and Sympoiesis presents its beauty and vitality as the catalysts for collaborative preservation.
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Iris van Herpen
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Gio Staiano
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Iris van Herpen
Coral-like colonies are constructed from Brewed Protein – a novel fermented fibre by biotech company Spiber – which has been laser cut and heat bonded to sheer organza. Meanwhile, ivory silk is draped upside down onto wave-shaped casts and coated with a fine layer of resin, becoming a cresting wave held in suspension – just before the chaos of the rolling crash.
Completing the collection, handcrafted shoes created in collaboration with Rombaut emanate cascading metal halos which echo the structure of sonar waves.
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Gio Staiano
Iris van Herpen, Haute Couture – Sympoiesis
Credit Molly SJ Lowe
“This collection is a collaboration with nature itself. In this time of ecological emergency and biodiversity loss, biodesign invites us to rethink the way we ‘use’ materials, to visualise a future where all human design is not just inspired by nature, but integrated with it,” says Van Herpen. “It highlights the interdependence between humans and nature, viewing the body not as isolated, but as an ecosystem – where fashion becomes alive, responsive, and deeply connected with the natural world.”
Iris van Herpen at her Haute Couture show – Sympoiesis
Credit Iris van Herpen
Show Credits
Light Arist: Nick Verstand, assisted by Wes Broerson Scent Experience: Francis Kurkdjian Biodesigner Living Look: Chris Bellamy – Bio Crafted Kinetic Look: Casey Curran Dancer: Madoka Kariya Music Director: Salvador Breed Choreographer: Wubkje Kuindersma.
This event is a result of the collective efforts of many. IVH Atelier Laurine Chevalier van Rooijen, Kecia Benvenuto, Petra Schuddeboom, Christian Reiche, Dominika Kasova, Claudia Tiessink, Anne-Sofie Bierman, Livia Blom, Ana Llobet Genaro, Joshua Lockley. Casting: Maxime Valentini Make-up: Andrew Gallimore – NARS Hair: Hester Wernert-Rijn – Authentic Beauty Concept Footwear Collaborator: Rombaut Bio-circularity Partner: Spiber Eco-Innovation Partner – Mycelium-based Leather: Mylo Show production: Popkraft with technical support by JUR Show Director and Backstage Producer: Kim Vos Show Film: Jip Mus & Dammes Kieft Editorial Photographer: Rob Rusling Atelier process Film: Jip Mus BTS Content: Amine Ouadrhiri, Delphine Chevalier Frontstage Photography: Gio Staiano First look Photography: Molly SJ Lowe Content Manager: Joanna van der Werf.
