HIGH VOLTAGE HAUTE COUTURE- IRIS VAN HERPEN 2013 SHOW ANALYSIS

What was it about Iris van Herpen’s High Voltage Haute Couture Show during Paris Couture Week 2013 that was so ‘electrifying’ ?
Everything. As a guest member of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Parisienne for the fourth season in a row, she didn’t fail to deliver. One would not have expected anything less from this avantgarde Créateur as this is exactly what she is - a Créateur, although let’s not take away the kudos from her many collaborators who season after season help her invent and develop new and strange ways of making a frock. In fact it would be like taking away Lesage from Chanel or Dior but one might argue that it wasn’t this craftsmanship that is part of the backbone of what Couture is all about and was shown to the select few who may actually afford to be able to buy it and to the press and critics who would either love it or at the very worst not understand it. But then we all know that Haute Couture is not about who can afford to buy and wear it, it’s about the €240 billion global industry that revolves around selling the bag, the shoe, the make-up or the perfume that goes with it, which at this point in time, Iris does not have.
It is interesting that the Chambre Syndicale invited van Herpen to show her exceptional frocks. To the traditionalist or the outsider they may not tick all the ‘Haute Couture’ boxes but look carefully, they do and the Dutchwoman has added a few more boxes of her own. Are they original ? tick, custom fitted ? tick, high quality, expensive fabrics, materials, time consuming, beautifully executed techniques, tick, tick, tick and more. Will her new boxes be added to the already ‘protected name’ that can only be used by houses that meet a certain well defined standard or will there be a newly created 21st century definition of Haute Couture ? A Future Couture –to coin Courrèges, where technology will add another dimension, not take over the painstakingly and laborious hundreds of hours of hand work which many houses proudly announce their garments took to make but elevate it to another level.
Time will tell, but for the moment, let’s immerse ourselves in the world of her collection which was shown at the InterContinental only a few days ago.
The inspiration was aptly called ‘Voltage’ and electrocute it did a few of times during the show. The first time was in the opening and set the tone of what was to come. A live sculpture of a man in a form fitting body suit was being electrocuted, thankfully not for real, well actually it was but he was well protected. So as my hair stood on end watching the spectacle, it continued to stand on end until the very last garment came out.
Van Herpen’s clothes seem to take on a life of their own in all her collections, what is intriguing to see is which form or which life they will ultimately take each time. In the previous season, her Hybrid Holism collection referred to the belief that all matter is alive. She created pieces using materials that simulated life and ultimately behaved in a lifelike way not only on their own but with the wearer themselves. Last season’s shapes or silhouettes were more structured and shaped according to the materials used from form-fitted leathers to bubble like 3-D materials and weird deviations of both, plaited to layered armadillo like pleating to detailed beaded tubes snaking around the body. Her colours were metallic - gunmetal, bronze, gold then catching us off guard she threw in a brilliant cerulean blue and for good measure a translucent fading coral. Her textures were varied but what she really wanted to show us was shine, maybe Brave New Shiny World was her message.
Unlike traditional designers who perhaps change their fabrics and shapes each collection to get the ‘new’ shape, the ‘new’ length or the ’new’ fabric, this designer’s DNA and brand vocabulary is the same every season. It goes without saying though that is precisely what makes it new every season. Her DNA is her imagination and fascination with science, with art, with nature or with the environment and the way she executes it with the help of willing and equally fascinating minds in these fields. Perhaps Brave New World Revisited was the point this time as Iris’s message doesn’t stop at one theme but several attempts at reinterpreting her already visited sources of inspiration.
This season, every piece was intricate, delicate, original and exceptional and obviously something to do with electricity striking the garment and/or the body, whichever it was, the result was beautiful and intriguing. If a scientist were in the audience, they would say there was only one colour in her collection this season -white as the black in the collection is not considered a colour. Ask me and I saw all the shades of black and white and the greys in between that danced their way around the garment as it was ‘electrocuted’. It’s like when you squeeze your eyes shut and observe the endless patterns, explosions, shapes and energies that confront that inner space, only in her space she selected her patterns and energies and very carefully executed it on her garments with a level of craftsmanship second to none.
The lines or silhouettes were dictated by the 3D materials and effects utilized. Most silhouettes focused on a softening of the body with contoured rounded shoulders, rounded hips and a shapelier line although a spanner was thrown in the works with the exaggerated version of it and experimenting with new shapes within shapes to create an even more exaggerated version. The real beauty though came with the delicateness of the embellishments and the detailing. The ethereal quality of the designs which on one outfit resembled strands of ‘electrocuted’ hair that were so fine, one wondered how it was possible technically to do this. On a coat the origami like cut-outs gave a modernity to the garment and a newness to the already explored laser cutting of late. A two-piece outfit defied gravity and held its own with its sea-anemone like embellishments which one expected to start moving with the walk of the model. Speaking of which, her models were modern women with their hair half pulled back into a high twisted and sculpted chignon and beautifully flat finger-waved at the front -like the 21st century version of the flapper. The eyes had a thick slick of black eyeliner giving a slightly Asian look to them, the fresh dewy mouth was there but it took a back seat. Finishing off the outfits were the sky-high 3D chevron designed interlaced shoe-boots, another interesting reference to the 20’s. Trying to decipher whether the fabric was silk or synthetic, whether the embellishments were sewn or sculpted, whether the clothes were works of art to be placed in a museum or to be worn for a cocktail party or to a wedding, was not the point. The point was her approach was new, not just her execution, she challenged the notion of design and she challenged the notion of beauty, she is a futurist, she is an avantgardist. If Aldous Huxley were alive today, this is what his characters would look like in Another Brave New World novel. What was her contribution to the shows this season ? Van Herpen raised the bar and she raised it pretty high, her challenge next time -in fact in a few weeks time with her first attempt at Ready to Wear will be interesting to say the least. She will need to raise that bar next season and the season after.
So what was the point of Iris van Herpen’s collection ? She made us dream and dreaming is what Haute Couture is all about.