As a sense of urgency laps at every facet of Sympoiesis, the new Iris Van Herpen Fall 2025 Haute Couture collection works in communion with the primordial rhythm of the organic and the human imperative of the technological.

“This collection is a collaboration with nature itself. In this time of ecological emergency and biodiversity loss, bio design invites us to rethink the way we ‘use’ materials, to visualize a future where all human design is not just inspired by nature, but integrated with it,” says Van Herpen.

To navigate the fracturing symbiosis, Van Herpen turns to the expansive, life-giving force of the ocean as a conceptual gateway, bearing witness to its ecological transformation and transcribing it into cloth via translucently layered textures, liquidized forms, and silhouettes that surge and wane as the tide.

The wonder of the Dohrnii, the immortal jellyfish, is captured in Japanese airfabric that drifts like currents suspended within moon-curved bonings laser-cut from translucent carbon fiber. Coral-like colonies are constructed from Brewed Protein – a novel fermented fiber by biotech company Spiber – which has been laser cut and heat bonded to sheer organza. Meanwhile, ivory silk is draped upside down onto wave-shaped casts and coated with a fine layer of resin, becoming a cresting wave held in suspension – just before the chaos of the rolling crash.

A bespoke fragrance by master perfumer Francis Kurkdjian unfolds like a wave as each look emerges to create an immersive and evocative multi-sensory experience, expressing the rich depths of underwater life – mysterious yet luminous.