All Images: Dazed Digital- Morgan O’Donovan

Iris Van Herpen showed her first couture collection in Paris last week and I haven’t been able to stop googling images from the show. I first came across her work last year whilst studying. Graduating from the repected Arnhem Academy in July 2006, her profile has been on the rise since, releasing amazing collections and collaborating with designers outside of fashion. Every interview I have read on her lets me in on her process a little more. I posted a collaboration she completed with Benthem Crouwel, two renowned Dutch architects, last year. Listening to other designers talk about their work, I can’t always relate to their philosophies, however Iris’s work is quite unique in that she is totally driven by her curiosity in the mundane. Philippe Pourhashemi described her work as a ‘reinterpretation of reality’ (I love it when writers can put things so simply).

Iris’ aesthetic doesn’t necessarily align with my work, yet her search for the newest innovations and technologies to push her designs does. “I like surprising myself and being amazed at things”. For me that’s why I love design, it’s a blank canvas that has infinite possibilities that you could never begin to scratch the surface of (hope that doesn’t sound as pretentious as it did when I was typing it).

Follow the links for more coverage of the S/S11 Couture coverage.

Dazed Digital
A Shaded View on Fashion
Fashionista

The RMIT Fashion program is currently holding residence on the second level of Melbourne’s GPO. Last night was the opening and it was great to see all the student’s hard work in one amazing space. I was lucky enough to have my work from MSFW on display amongst my graduating classmates. There are some snaps below that I took just before the third years show started. I could only see glimpses of the models because there was such a crowd, but what I did see was beautiful. The live band that played set such a fresh tone to the runway, I couldn’t help dancing during the show.
The GPO space shed some much needed natural light on our work- a welcome change from the harsh fluorescent’s of level ten! If you have any time to get down to the GPO I really recommend it, it runs until Nov 28. Congrats to Robyn and Jo for organising such a major event.

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Here’s a link to a Suzy Menkes article asking ‘Is a runway show really necessary?’. A couple of posts back I wrote about how designers are starting to reassess how they are presenting their work. It’s always interesting to hear designers like Pugh talk about communicating their work and how they are trying to push the envelope. As soon as you decide to show your work in film (either in a film or image) you loose elements of it, however there are different elements that you can add or subtract. Ultimately it’s always a compromise but there are a lot more options than just the runway to represent the designers concept. Nick Knight suggests that it’s not just the communication of the work that can be changed, but also a ‘click to buy’ concept that could revolutionise how consumers purchase fashion. The most exciting part of this mini revolution is that it is the younger generation of designers who are pushing the boundaries and hopefully changing the fashion landscape.

The colour of the paper dress is something I need to decide asap so Caz knows what colour card to construct the accessories in. I mentioned how important colour will be in the exhibition a few posts back. I don’t think having it in white will work against the back drop of the photo shoot, so black will be the best option. Thinking about how much impact the hairspray had on the shoot, I had an idea to maybe include thaton the paper dress. Just having the black dress may not highlight the links and loops, so when I sprayed the sample with the pink I was really happy with the results. The effect highlights each loop and adds an injection of colour to the garment. I’ll ask around for more opinions but I think this could work in the exhibition.