We return to the raw intimacy and subversive tenderness that defined her gaze. A multi-sensory immersion into the ocean’s fragility, ‘Sympoiesis’ transforms couture into a living, bioluminescent plea for planetary care.
In the film ‘Inside the Atelier – The Making of Sympoiesis’, directed by Jip Mus, we enter the sacred space where Iris van Herpen’s latest haute couture collection slowly comes to life. There are no moodboards or sudden sketches. Instead, there are months of material research, marine observations and slow, reverent care. Algae glows softly in seawater baths. Whisper-thin textiles breathe like membranes. The collection unfolds not by force, but by growing.
More than documenting the making of garments, the film reveals a choreography between nature, design and time. The living look co-created with biodesigner Chris Bellamy, inhabited by 125 million bioluminescent algae, is seen evolving in its controlled habitat. It is not constructed but cultivated. At every step, ‘Sympoiesis’ becomes a gesture of reciprocity, blurring the boundaries between the natural and the man-made.
The atelier is also a space of performance. Van Herpen, a trained dancer, invokes the spirit of Loïe Fuller, whose ethereal movements inspired the show’s opening: a live light painting in collaboration with artist Nick Verstand, where fabric and energy swirl into one. Other collaborations, like the kinetic wings by Casey Curran and sonar-inspired shoes made with Rombaut, stretch the limits of what fashion can be.
‘Sympoiesis’ is not simply shown—it is grown, whispered into being. And in this behind-the-scenes film, we see how every wave, shimmer and scent begins not with spectacle, but with care.
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