Iris van Herpen's Haute Couture Retrospective Opens at Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum opens 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses' on May 16, 2026, running through December 6. Building on a 2023 Paris retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the show features over 140 haute couture designs from van Herpen's career, including recent collections like 'Sympoeisis' (2025). The exhibition incorporates works by artists such as Kenny Nguyen, Wim Delvoye, Agostino Arrivabene, 目[Mé], Katsumata Chieko, and Tara Donovan, many from the museum's collection. A multi-sensory soundscape by Dutch composer Salvador Breed accompanies the experience. Van Herpen's designs use high-tech processes like laser-cutting and Plexiglas, and incorporate biological materials—the 'Living Algae' look from Sympoeisis uses real Pyrocystis lunula algae that glows in the dark. At the 2025 Met Gala, Olympic skier Eileen Gu wore van Herpen's 'Airu' dress, which emitted real plastic bubbles. The exhibition explores intersections of fashion, art, science, and technology, drawing from mathematics, neuroscience, marine biology, paleontology, mycology, mineralogy, and astronomy.