Superlatives like ‘original’, ‘genius’, or ‘trailblazing’ are the carbs of the fashion world, the fluff of conversations at fashion weeks in Paris, Milan and New York, and fillers of fashion column inches aplenty. By this point, they’re about as meaningful as the casual greeting ’how are you’ in England (nobody actually cares). But with internationally acclaimed Dutch fashion designer, Iris van Herpen, these words barely describe the extent of her talent.

After a formative period with Alexander McQueen, the designer established Maison Iris van Herpen in Amsterdam in 2007, where she forged her own path with a singular vision that combined craftsmanship with innovation, resulting in fashion designs that beautifully capture the intricacy and diversity of the natural world. Only four years later, at the age of 27, she received a prestigious invitation to join the exclusive Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris. One cannot simply declare themselves a couture Maison; it is a title that must be bestowed upon them.

In the ensuing decade, van Herpen has garnered international acclaim for her ability to seamlessly blend couture craftsmanship with innovative techniques. Her brilliance lies in understanding that technology, science, art and couture, are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they can be combined to create hybrid creations that draw on different influences.

The year 2010 marked a turning point in van Herpen’s career, as she became the first designer to present a 3D-printed dress on the runway from her ‘Crystallization Collection’. Since then, she has continued to captivate the fashion and design world with her pioneering use of cutting-edge technologies in her designs, creating sculptural couture pieces for some of the most recognisable names in pop culture, including Bjork, Lady Gaga and Beyonce.  Her collections reference the natural world and the otherworldly, from the deep sea to the intricacy of fungi and the entanglement of life beneath our feet, creating complex pieces through avant-garde use of materials, molding unexpected shapes, and exquisite tailoring to the model’s body.

Collaborating with architects, technicians, physicists, and biologists, her creations feature a symbiosis of high technology and the artisanal craftsmanship of couture. Her runway shows have featured kinetic headdresses, exoskeleton dresses, 3D printed dresses made of thousands of laser-cut nude feathers that cover the garment, giving the illusion of movement and flight; dresses that mirrored sound waves, fingerprints or the water’s surface; and a ‘Cathedral’ dress printed in polyamide that resembled wood with a glossy finish created by copper electroplating, inspired by gothic European architecture and the Baroque. These garments surpass the sartorial; they are truly works of art.

Celebrating this innovation is the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art exhibition Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses, which has put together a curated collection of some of van Herpen’s most jaw-dropping pieces. The exhibition follows on from an iteration at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, held earlier this year, where van Herpen was the youngest female designer to be granted a show.

Curated by Cloé Pitiot and Louise Curtis from Musée des Arts Décoratifs, in collaboration with Nina Miall and Jacinta Giles from QAGOMA, Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses includes an evocation of the designer’s Amsterdam studio, revealing the stages of a dress in development, and a space dedicated to her fashion shows. This immersive sensory exploration of van Herpen’s practice features 130 garments and accessories in conversation with contemporary artworks, natural history specimens, and cultural artifacts from which the designer draws inspiration, accompanied by a dreamy soundscape from the designer’s partner, artist Salvador Breed. It includes nine distinctive rooms, or chapters, at QAGOMA, which explore ecosystems and their cycles of growth, decay, and regeneration, including a room inspired by skeletons and skeletal structures.

An inspiring must-see exhibition for any fashion and art lover, celebrating the future, fashion and fantasy.

Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses is on at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) from June 29 to October 7