Sea Change: Iris van Herpen's New Collection Tells a Tale of Couture, Creation and Connection in Paris

Iris van Herpen wanted to create coral-like forms from fire-flamed brass that is hand-made into diaphanous clouds that hover around model Andrea Gutierrez, Photograph (above) and cover picture by Jay Zoo. 

Amid rising seas and vanishing reefs, Iris van Herpen’s Autumn/Winter 2025–26 couture collection Sympoiesis asks us to reconsider our place in nature, not as distant observers, but as part of a shared system. The Dutch designer transformed her runway creations into symbols of a living oceanic organism: delicate, intelligent, and interconnected, where algae illuminate dresses and textiles are like coral, fusing biodesign and marine science, the show was a sensory study about how we are all connected. Story by Jeanne-Marie Cilento and Andrea Heinsohn. Photographs by Jay Zoo 

Translucent organza in hues of

blue and green, like the ocean. 

Photograph: Jay Zoo 

THIS season in Paris, Iris van Herpen didn’t just present a couture collection, she mapped an entire fashion ecosystem. Called Sympoiesis, she unveiled her new work during Haute Couture Week, Autumn-Winter 2025/26, as a manifesto on the fragility of the ocean. 

Drawing on marine biology, biofabrication, movement, scent, and light, the Dutch designer transformed the runway into a thoughtful meditation on connectedness: between humans and nature, art and science, past and future. 

From a gown inhabited by millions of bioluminescent algae to kinetic wings that fluttered like underwater lifeforms, the collection asked what it means to design not just for the body, but with the world around it.

“The collection is a collaboration with nature itself,” van Herpen said. “In this time of ecological emergency and biodiversity loss, biodesign invites us to rethink the way we 'use' materials, to visualise a future where all human design is not just inspired by nature but integrated with it.

"It highlights the interdependence between humans and nature, viewing the body not as isolated, but as an ecosystem, where fashion becomes alive, responsive, and connected with the natural world.”

Drawing on marine biology, biofabrication, movement, scent, and light, the Dutch designer  wanted to evoke interdependence, between humans and nature, art and science

The immersive performance

created with lighting artist

Nick Verstand at the show

Photograph: Jay Zoo. 

The show opened with a performance in collaboration with Dutch light artist Nick Verstand. A dancer, dressed in a whisper-thin Japanese fabric, moved within a chamber of laser-projected light. Each gesture summoned organic, flowing shapes, like phosphorescence disturbed by a swimmer’s hand. 

The performance invoked the pioneering spirit of Loïe Fuller, whose late-19th-century experiments with fabric, light, and choreography paved the way for what van Herpen now renders through aerospace textiles and motion-triggered projection. 

“She seems to be in dialogue with the forces of nature in her performances,” said van Herpen. “In my eyes she was an alchemist of light  and textiles, with which she merged dance into sculpture.

“The dancer becomes morphogenic and more-than-human, seeming to shimmer in and out of perception, often being swallowed entirely into this bioluminescent creature,” she added. “The show opening is an emotionally charged performance on how we have drained the life out of our oceans. It is a call for protection."

Then came the most talked-about moment of the night: a model stepping out in the design incorporating the bioluminescent algae. The collaboration with biodesigner Chris Bellamy produced what is likely couture’s first living garment. The algae, pyrocystis lunula, emit light in response to movement. 

“The show opening is an emotionally charged performance on how we have drained the life out of our oceans. It is a call for protection."

The evocative, organic designs

created by van Herpen, are 

both elegant and futuristic.  

Photograph: Jay Zoo

Months of lab cultivation, using saltwater baths and circadian-light cycling, created a gel-based ecosystem for the microorganisms, which pulsed gently inside a translucent bodice. The design was housed off-runway in a climate-controlled biosphere designed to simulate oceanic conditions. This wasn’t a dress meant to be worn; it was meant to be cared for.

That distinction was crucial.Van Herpen isn’t proposing living fashion as novelty. Instead, the algae look raises questions about mutual dependency, fragility, and what it might mean to cultivate garments as ecosystems, ones that breathe, grow, and respond.

The designer has long worked at the intersection of natural systems and scientific inquiry. But Sympoiesis deepened that engagement through its conceptual grounding in James Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, which views the Earth’s biosphere as a single, self-regulating organism. 

The ocean, in this theory, is not a backdrop or even a resource, but a vital, co-creative force. “We can’t view nature as something separate from us,” van Herpen said. “We’re entangled, biologically, materially, emotionally.” This ethos emerged through form and material. One standout look, created with kinetic artist Casey Curran, featured delicate wings made from golden coil filaments that rippled in slow, synchronized movements, like the pulsing of jellyfish or the respiration of coral. The design was based on microscopic imaging of bioluminescent plankton.

“In this time of ecological emergency, biodesign invites us to rethink the way we 'use' materials, to visualise a future where human design is not just inspired by nature but integrated with it"

The sinuous gown created from

Spiber's Brewed Protein was a

highlight of the show in Paris.

Photograph; Jay Zoo

Van Herpen’s signature mix of cutting-edge materials and fluid shapes continued throughout the collection. Carbon fibre boning mimicked moon jellies and sonar waves. Silk, draped over wave-shaped casts and coated with resin, became suspended breakers. In another look, Brewed Protein, a plant-based biomaterial developed by Japanese biotech company Spiber, was laser-cut and bonded to sheer organza to create coral-like forms.

Perhaps the most compelling example of Sympoiesis' fusion of design and material innovation came in one of the collection’s two bridal looks, also made with Spiber. Their fibre is a lab-engineered material based on proteins found in spider silk and cashmere but produced through microbial fermentation. 

"Biomimicry is always present in Spiber's approach, and that's really similar to our methodology," explained van Herpen. "Fusing biology with innovation, recreating the way nature makes a material, starting from a protein. They were able to translate a complex technology to meet the needs of designers and create something truly wearable, which is a rare quality."

The wedding gown combined sheer organza and the Spiber protein, laser-cut into hundreds of crescent shapes, then dyed in shades of soft coral and ivory. The panels were heat-sealed to create a shimmering exoskeleton, while illusion tulle carried delicate coral-like embellishments that spiraled into a weightless train “The fabric floats on the skin like it’s alive,” Van Herpen said. “It has a softness and lightness that can’t be replicated.”

Each of the show’s eighteen looks engaged with the ocean thematically and structurally. Spiber's Brewed Protein appeared again in translucent constructions, while handcrafted shoes made in collaboration with Rombaut featured cascading metal halos that echoed sonar rings.

"'Ocean' by David Attenborough by reminded me that the future isn’t only about fear. It’s about potential. Healing is possible" 

The subtle hues of peach and

plum were created from

gradient-dyed fabrics.

Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn

Gradient-dyed gowns transitioned from peach hues to a darker plum. “The silhouettes dissolve in motion, as if painted by currents beneath the surface,” said van Herpen. In the gravity-defying Noosphere look, painterly shades of green and blue washed across featherlight carbon fibre panels, forming a silhouette like a drifting sea creature.

A bespoke fragrance by Francis Kurkdjian added another sensory dimension to the experience. Diffused as each model stepped onto the runway, the scent evoked driftwood, mineral salt, and bioluminescence.

“Perfume is an invisible wave, a breath of the soul that may prolong the movement of a garment,” said Kurkdjian. “For Iris van Herpen, I wanted an olfactory score that extends the poetry of her silhouettes, a fragrance like a full immersion: deep, aquatic, familiar yet almost unreal, surreal."

Van Herpen credits the documentary Ocean by David Attenborough with influencing the emotional architecture of the collection. The film’s emphasis on both ecological destruction and nature’s capacity for recovery resonated.

“It reminded me that the future isn’t only about fear,” van Herpen said. “It’s about potential. Healing is possible." That optimism infuses the Sympoiesis collection. The title itself, meaning "making-with," captures a new mode of design, one that operates not in dominion over nature, but in dialogue with it.

In a Paris couture week already full of spectacle and celebrity, vân Herpen’s show offered something else: a rare invitation to slow down and engage on a deeper level. Here, couture was not just image-making but exploring a different future. And in Sympoiesis, the designer shows us that the world we build next depends on how we choose to relate ~ to other living beings, to the environment, including our oceans, and to each other.