Changes: Iris van Herpen

Revision as of 18:10, 21 July 2011

64b04c1fjw6dedg0i2v6ej — Iris takes photo with N6 boxset

Iris van Herpen is a Holland based designer who designed the Refinery Smoke dress and water piece for the poster and the show of Joey Yung's Number 6 concert. It was said that the water piece costs about Three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars and there was originally two pieces for Joey. However, one of them were broken during transportation.

Refinery Smoke Collection

Joey has worn one of the dress from this collection during the shoot of the poster of the Number 6 concert. She stated that the dress is heavy and hard, but the effect is beautiful.

“	Iris van Herpen這襲裙像雲一樣，但其實重得很，因為用了鐵網做原料，而且實物很硬，令我難以移動。不過當看到照片的時候，覺得再辛苦也值得。	”
—Joey Yung, quoted in EastTouch

Interview

The EastTouch magazine had done an interview with Iris about the ideas of the Refinery Smoke dress.

Images

Crystalization Collection

Joey has worn the water piece from this collection during the Number 6 concert while singing "Sing More and Stronger", meaning the "cold water" splashed by haters would cause her became stronger.

Joey's production team has done a interview with Iris van Herpen about the water piece after Joey's concert. The full interview was included in the live products of the concert.

English interview

Could You tell us the concept behind this water piece?
Crystallization. Chaos shaft structure. Amsterdam Fashion Week, show July 2010.

Jan Benthem and Mets Crouwel, from Benthem Crouwel Architects, asked me to design a dress inspired by the new city museum, which they called 'the bathtub'. As a reaction to their bathtub, I designed a dress that embraces the body like a warm bath. This became the vision and the beginning of this water piece for Joey. What fascinates me most about water is the transformation from liquid to solid chaos structure. The fact that a totally transparent and fluid material hides a secret structured pattern of lines which, so it seems, only comes to life when frozen, thus when crystals are formed. Only then will the symmetry and structure become visible. In one form it's water, soft and fluid as a warm bath, and as ice it's hard and mathematically structured into crystals.

What inspired you to create the crystallization collection?
My goal for this clooection was chaos as structure. I am fascinated by the fact that there are secret lines hidden in totally transparent and liquid material. Life appears at the moment of freezing, when crystals form. Only then does the underlying symmetry and structure become visible. In the transformation of water into crystal, I find the liquid chaos, which evolves into a solid, architectural structure, which became my inspiration for this 'Crystallization' collection. I am fascinated by the secrets and invisibility of water, in particular the antithesis of structure and chaos, so I took this as the foundation of my collection. Imagine the transformation of water to crystal, soft and fluid as water, as opposed to hard, mathematical structures such as ice crystals. This process I translated visually, but also in the design process. Seeming chaos to structured precision.

How did you capture the water splashing and turn it into the water piece?
I bought a few books with pictures of water, really nice. I researched the forms of falling and splashing water. Then I did a lot of experiments with different techniques. I found out that PET G works the way I wanted. I melt the material with a heat blower into the shapes that I want, then I form it with tiny pliers.

What was your biggest challenge in making it?
Well, it is totally unpredictable. So in the end I make like ten times the object that it is in the end, because most things go wrong. Then I start again. So I never know exactly how the material will react. Sometimes it suddenly gives little bubbles, or something else happens.

Joey looked radiant, brillant on stage wearing your water piece. People were positively overwhelmed by the water piece when Joey stepped onto the stage. How did you feel when you saw it on her? What kind of image do you want to project to the audience?
I felt very honored and proud that she wore the piece that I designed, it looked very cool! I want to show the strong and independent personality of Joey within her unique concert that she is giving to the people

What is particularly impressive about the water piece is its strong silhouette, yet it is physically very brittle. Was the contrast intentional or experimental? (Is it true that you originally made two pieces, one that Joey wore at her concert, and another that broke?)
The-contrast of the strong and fragile look was intertional, because water has something very strong and fragile as well. Also the contrast of movement and stillness was important to suggest in the piece. And it is true, I made two pieces, the other one broke in transit. That was a very big disappointment for me, because I had spent so much time on it, and it is impossible to make the same one again.

So it took you almost a month to make the water piece. From concept to production, which part did you spend most time on?
Production, because I made a lot of shapes that did not work out the way I wanted.

At the moment, what kind of materials do you have in mind that you want to try most?
we are experimenting in NY with flexible polyamide and differnet finishings on it, very interesting!