Looking Outwards 03

For this blog post on computational fabrication, I’m interested in talking about fashion designer Iris Van Herpen’s work. As a designer, she is consistently pushing the boundaries of textile materials and silhouettes, blending together nature and technology to create intricate pieces. The inspiration for her SS18 collection Ludi Naturae was the natural and manmade landscapes of our world from a bird’s-eye view, surveying the intricate aerial photography by Thierry Bornier, Andy Yeung, etc. Through the collection process film, it seems that a computer program was used to analyze the natural landscape’s curves and create an organic pattern that the designers could then refine. A 3D printer was also used to create individual physical pieces that are then hand-sewn together for the final garment. I was fascinated by the array of patterns and silhouettes Herpen created for this collection and how the organic forms flow together. While some of the designs were most organic, others were composed of simple geometric shapes arranged in different patterns and groups. Every dress was made up of many small pieces of 3D printed material so great attention to detail was placed on how they came together as a whole fabric to create an illusion of movement.