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Iris van Herpen wins Witteveen+Bos award for Art+Technology 2016

  • Fashion
  • ArtEZ Prizewinner
Photo: Jean Baptiste Mondino
Photo: Jean Baptiste Mondino

Fashion designer Iris van Herpen has won the Witteveen+Bos award for Art+Technology 2016. Iris van Herpen is an alumnus of ArtEZ Fashion Design and works for Alexander McQueen and Claudy Jongstra, among others. Celebs such as Björk, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and Tilda Swinton regularly wear her designs. Van Herpen will be presented with the award on Thursday 3 November 2016 in the Bergkerk church in Deventer during the opening of the exhibition ‘Iris van Herpen – Metabolic’.

When developing materials and collections, Iris van Herpen often works with professionals from other disciplines such as architects, researchers, (bio) technologists, designers and artists. The themes of Van Herpen's collections have a scientific touch. For Micro (2012) she used images from an electron microscope and she plunged into the world of micro-organisms; the focus of Radiation Invasion (2009) was the presence of electromagnetic radiation in our daily lives. Her designs have entered museum collections all over the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which gave her work a prominent spot in the Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology exhibition this summer Van Herpen's work is widely recognised. In 2013, Iris van Herpen was the big winner at the Dutch Design Awards – she developed a magnetic dress with product designer Jólan van der Wiel.

Innovative
For the first time ever in its 15-year existence, fashion is the focus of the Art+Technology award. The jury unanimously voted to give Iris van Herpen the award thanks to the more than instrumental application of technology in her designs. ‘She combines handiwork and technology and her work is unique and opens up new horizons. With her innovations she is contributing to the sustainability of the fashion industry.’ The research that Van Herpen carries out to find new materials is possibly the ‘disruptive’ factor in the fashion industry that can help eliminate abuses in the production process, such as environmental harm and working conditions.

Iris van Herpen – Metabolic exhibition 4 November – 4 December 2016. Tue, Wed, Sun 11:00-17:00 Thu, Fri, Sat 11:00-21:00 Bergkerk church, Bergkerkplein 1, Deventer. Free entry.