Iris van Herpen designs both haute couture and ready-to-wear clothes for women. In her collections, craftsmanship meets innovative materials and digital technologies. For instance, Van Herpen relies on 3D printing and nanorobotics to make her handmade clothing a reality.

The Dutch designer applies her technological skills to her research into sustainable textiles as well. After all, Van Herpen strongly believes that the future of textiles lies in biotechnological fabrics that are part and parcel of nature’s cycle. Such fabrics are made from organic resources, simply returning to nature as food for other organisms after use. In this scenario, textile does not harm the environment but belongs rather to an ecological closed-loop system.