To know the work of designer Iris van Herpen is to know the beauty of a mushroom gill (her Spring 2021 collection drew patterns from the mycelium network), the glow of bioluminescent algae (Fall 2025 included a “living dress” made with 125 million Pyrocystis lunula organisms) and the movement of a bird mid-flight (as seen in the glass wing pleats of her Fall 2018 collection). Since founding her namesake brand in 2007, the forward-thinking Dutch couturier has looked to fields spanning mathematics, neuroscience, marine biology, paleontology, mycology, mineralogy, astronomy, architecture and dance to inspire her fantastical haute couture garments.Those wide-ranging sources of inspiration are at the center of Brooklyn Museum’s newest fashion exhibit, “Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses.” “Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses”Photo: Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum “What I found amazing about Iris was that she had a very different source of inspiration than most designers,” Matthew Yokobosky, senior curator of fashion and material culture at the Brooklyn Museum (who has staged exhibitions on Dior, Virgil Abloh and Thierry Mugler), tells Fashionista. “Of course, we have designers who are influenced by orchids or flowers… but Iris is looking at it beyond just a flower, just a leaf. She’s looking at structures. She’s looking at growth systems. She’s looking at how the world’s weather is changing, the ocean, the sky. It’s a much more complex box of inspiration.”Having originated at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2023, the “mid-career retrospective” brings together more than 140 haute couture…
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