Material Worlds fashion show celebrates innovative Dutch designer Iris Van Herpen

By

Rebecca Taras

Published
Mar 29, 2017

On Friday, March 24, dozens of local artisans (think fashion and jewelry designers, sculptors, architecture students and even a human hair artist) featured their wares at the sold-out Material Worlds fashion show at Ace Hotel Pittsburgh in East Liberty. The event was produced by Luxe Creative and presented by the Carnegie Museum of Art where the exhibition “Iris Van Herpen: Transforming Fashion” is on display until May 1. The celebrated Dutch fashion designer is known for being a pioneer in the fashion world by utilizing 3D printing and other means of technology to construct her garments.

The focal point of the evening included works—submitted by artists earlier in the year— who embraced Van Herpen’s unorthodox aesthetic. The chosen winners received a stipend and access to TechShop in East Liberty to turn their ideas into reality for the big night. Participants were encouraged to mimic Van Herpen’s unique structural fabrication, to include the incorporation of materials and mediums such as plaster, rockite, heat-formed Plexiglass and the iconic 3-D printed modules.

As widely reported by the fashion press, the artistic evening included artists and designers such as Rachel Muse, Lea Albaugh, Memphis George, Stephanie Moye, Brandon Darreff and Zain Islam-Hashmi, Sarah Jane Sindler, Richard Chou and Chengcheng Zhao. Revive Marketing's Eileen French and Jack Bellas, Helene Finegold, Ginny Rothschild, Mary Margaret Stamy and Erin and Jeff Cohen were among the standing room only group of esteemed attendees crowding the runway for the big reveal.