New York (AFP) – Around a table, two women exchange in low voices, pleating a silver fabric that a third attaches to the train of a mermaid dress. Little by little, a sculptural tangle forms, between frozen foam, lava flows and climbing ferns.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 23:01

The garment was born from the imagination of Dutch designer Iris Van Herpen, known for her haute couture outfits inspired by nature and living things, from the seabed to mushrooms, including the bones of birds.

His fashion shows are a sensation and his creations have been seen on popstars Lady Gaga and Beyoncé as well as freestyle skier Eileen Gu.

Rarely, those who help the 42-year-old designer create this dress are... visitors to a retrospective of her work at the Brooklyn Museum, in New York, until January 3.

The traveling exhibition, first presented in Paris in 2024, invites you to discover the seamstress's workshop and her creative process.

This time, Iris Van Herpen decided to make it interactive, allowing the public to touch - literally - what characterizes this workshop: "manual work" and "collaborative", she explains to AFP.

“It also allows me to create a sort of time capsule of the exhibition,” she adds. "And I was just curious to see who I was going to meet, how this could all become a new piece, and how these conversations influence the process of creating the drape. So it's a bit of a testing ground."

Since the summer, some 200 visitors - artists, scientists, lawyers, journalists, etc. - have had the opportunity to sit in front of her for around ten minutes to work and discuss.

In addition to pleating a thick fabric made of silk and silver, the designer asked them to share a moment of connection with nature or the senses that play the most important role in their relationship with the world.

“Truly authentic”

The exchange allows us to learn more about the Dutch woman's sources of inspiration, water in particular, "this ancient being which has always been there, such a vital and transformative force".

Cloud, rain, snow, ice, crystal... "It's just amazing how it's everywhere, always changing."

The conversations are recorded and the most significant will be embroidered inside the dress.

The designer, used to working with scientists to design fabrics and clothes, says she draws on the expertise of biologists in particular.

April Chapman, a university administrator in her sixties, told him about the outfits made with her mother and the manual activities, "collages and cardboard constructions", made with her son.

Addam Moreno, a 54-year-old hairstylist and artist, came “to transcendentalism and meditation.”

“I like his methodology,” he continues. "It was beautiful to be able to chat and still have our hands full. I think there was something about that that allowed us to step back from the situation and have a really authentic conversation."

Coming with him, Shannon Green, a 48-year-old lawyer, relishes her chance, questioned by visitors who did not have the opportunity to sit opposite Iris van Herpen.

"I had never worked on a haute couture dress. I had never met a living artist of her stature and accomplishments. So just to have real human interaction with her is very special."

© 2026 AFP

The content you are trying to access does not exist or is no longer available.