Editor’s Note: This video is a section from the NCS Style show.
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Designer Iris van Herpen is understood for combining fashion and know-how
She’s integrated 3D printing, ultrasonic welding and magnetized fibers into her designs
NCS
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“I will show you the dragon skin dress.” Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen walks by her Amsterdam-based studio to disclose a bit of clothes that each appears and sounds, nearly magical.
But removed from being comprised of the pelt of a mythological creature, this costume is constructed in the identical manner that many particular results masks in Hollywood films are. Dragon Skin is a sequence of high-performance silicones.
“It’s really like second skin,” she explains.
Dragon Skin is simply one of many methods van Herpen makes use of know-how to create otherworldly fashion collections. In 2010 she was one of many first designers to create a 3D-printed costume. Since then, she’s experimented with laser reducing, ultrasonic welding and magnetized fibers. She’s even visited CERN for inspiration.

Iris van Herpen: When excessive fashion meets science
In addition to the maybe apparent followers like Bjork and Lady Gaga, her items have been noticed on the likes of Kim Kardashian, Scarlett Johansson and Beyoncé.
Technology and fashion at the moment are common bedfellows, with a complete spectrum of improvements in wearable tech on provide, from the on a regular basis (the Apple watch) to the fantastical (Lady Gaga’s flying costume from 2013). van Herpen, nonetheless, is certainly one of few designers marrying tech and couture.
“Some ateliers really go for the craft and some ateliers go for the technology, but I notice when we bring them together a lot more possibilities start to grow,” she says.
Van Herpen’s items are usually not solely spectacular on a floor stage – from the materials used to the mode of building. In attire that appear like bone, or water frozen in time, the technological strategies are matched by creativeness and creativity.
“I definitely think being in contact with scientists and people that are really specialized in technology opens up my world of thinking, and I can create different structures than I would if I had been in my own bubble,” she says.
“I think once you isolate technology, on its own it becomes a very cold medium. But technology is handled by people, so all that matters is what you do with it.”
Watch the video above for a glance inside Iris van Herpen’s high-tech studio.