Amazing creatures hide in the depths of the sea: mysterious jellyfish, like the Chirodectes maculatus, fish with transparent heads such as the Macropinna microstoma, and iridescent worms known as Peinaleopolynoe. Among these fragile and delicate deep-sea creatures there is also the Chrysomallon squamiferum, or sea pangolin, a snail covered by an armour-like structure, that allows it to live several miles below the ocean surface. This dichotomy between the fragility and the strength of deep-sea creatures adapts to the moods of Iris Van Herpen's S/S 23 collection.
In a previous Haute Couture collection (A/W 2021), the Dutch designer explored air, testing one of her creation on an elite skydiver in a 300-kilometer-per-hour fall to earth.
So, for the S/S 23 season it made sense to move onto (or rather "into" in this case...) water (an element that already appeared as an inspiration in Van Herpen's designs and during the A/W 17 show when Danish underwater group Between Music, played crouched in water tanks).
Most fashion presentations have returned to a pre-Covid-19 format, but Van Herpen opted instead to show the new collection with a film. For the occasion, the fashion designer worked with French dancer, choreographer and free diver Julie Gautier.
Shot near Padua, Italy, at the Y-40 pool, the deepest salsobromoiodic thermal water manmade pool in the world (the maximum depth is 42,15 meters), the film is not your average water choreography.
In the short film there aren't indeed synchronized swimming movements forming angular body geometries à la Esther Williams, but a series of underwater delicate choreographies executed by dancers on original music by composer Miranda Vukasovic. The collection was tested in water in the studio and resisted pretty well while filming; Van Herpen's team also followed the dancers in the water to make adjustments to the garments and ensure that everything ran smoothly.
The film opens with the dancers in laser-cut bodices on nude bodysuits: some of the fragile bodices integrate trails of printed silks or strands of hair (this is the first time Van Herpen employed real and synthetic hair in her designs) that recreate the fins of the most delicate goldfish or the tentacles of an octopus. A variation is represented in the video by dégradé silk or polyester gowns replicating the colours of rare jellyfish.
Yet there was a twist in all this underwater fragility: a while back Gautier shot a touching film entitled "Ama”" in which, moving from a personal painful experience, she gracefully danced underwater on Ezio Bosso's "Rain In Your Black Eyes". Gautier dedicated that film to all the women of the world.
Van Herpen must have had in mind that video while working on this collection and developing the accompanying presentation.
Towards the end of the film Gautier dances in a corset with human and synthetic hair in vivid red attached to it that envelop her in a blood-like cloud. For an instant she remains suspended in the water, she looks as if she were flying or maybe ascending to heaven, and finally releases a silent screem that comes out as bubbles of air, before returning to the surface to draw breath (the still images don't make justice to the choreography as dancing underwater is no mean feat...).
Gautier's choreography is a metaphor for all the women feeling bottled, almost trapped "underwater", while trying to scream and struggling to make their voices heard.
Through Gautier's choreography Van Herpen tried to make a symbolic reference to women in general and to express her solidarity to the protests in Iran that have been going since September 2022, when 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police after they arrested her for being in violation of the dress code for women.
The hair attached to Gautier's bodice was a reference to the women cutting their hair in protest in Iran - a practice cited in Persian literature as a sign of protest, anger or mourning.
Going underwater, but still screaming was for Van Herpen a way to represent women's strength and resilience during terrible trials and adversities in an environment where your voice can't be heard.
The designer felt it would have been impossible to represent these feelings and her message for Iran and symbolise strength through underwater fragility with a conventional runway.
Through the film Van Herpen also hopes to remind Haute Couture clients that fashion can be used as a vehicle to create our identity, but also to spread a message and talk about more important topics.
Some of these designs or versions of them will probably reappear at red carpet events at some point, while Van Herpen may not be a lot under the spotlight in the next few months as she is currently busy putting the final touches to the retrospective that will open in November at Paris' Musée des Arts Décoratifs.
While chronicling her experience as a designer, this visual diary of her career will hopefully also inspire visitors to look at fashion from the science and technology perspectives and make them realise there's so much more behind this industry. The trick to discover it is to block out all the noise surrounding fashion and deep diving into more meaningful experiences.
Comments