Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen has presented her 2015 Spring-Summer collection with the title ‘Magnetic Motion’. The designer who graduated from ArtEZ interned at Alexander McQueen and Claudy Jongstra in Amsterdam has a deep-rooted passion for the dividing line between craftsmanship and innovation in technique and materials. Her garments combine fine handwork techniques with digital technology, forcing fashion to the extreme by contradicting beauty and regeneration. In this way, van Herpen re-evaluates reality and underlines individuality. Central in her design language is the expression of the character and emotions of women, extending the shape of the female body in detail.

Before designing her SS15 collection, the Dutch designer paid a visit to CERN, the world’s largest particle collider, at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland. There she discovered the thousands of high-powered magnets that are used to make the particle collider work. Iris van Herpen translated her discoveries to her new collection, resulting in a beautiful collision of fashion, technology, nature, art and engineering.

“For me fashion is an expression of art that is very close related to me and to my body. I see it as my expression of identity combined with desire, moods and cultural setting. In all my work I try to make clear that fashion is an artistic expression, showing and wearing art, and not just a functional and devoid of content or commercial tool. With my work I intend to show that fashion can certainly have an added value to the world,  that it can be timeless and that its consumption can be less important then its beginning. Wearing clothing creates an exciting and imperative form of self-expression. ‘Form follows function’ is not a slogan with which I concur. On the contrary, I find that forms complement and change the body and thus the emotion. Movement, so essential to and in the body, is just as important in my work. By bringing form, structure and  materials together in a new manner, I try to suggest and realize optimal tension and movement.” – Iris van Herpen