Iris Van Herpen Is Collaborating With Aveda for Its 2023 Holiday Collection

After several years of collaborating on runway shows and editorials, couture extraordinaire Iris Van Herpen and hair-care brand Aveda are teaming up on a limited-edition three-piece holiday collection.

"It's a match made in heaven. We feel that both of our brand's synergies are very similar. We're both about sustainability, but also innovation and commitment to nature and science," Antoinette Beenders, senior vice president of global artistry at Aveda, tells Fashionista. "It was such an organic connection that it just had to happen."

Van Herpen has long been inspired by nature and sustainability, as seen by her signature skeleton-like designs and use of recycled materials like ocean plastics throughout her collections. Because of its aligning commitments like using plant-based and naturally-derived ingredients in its product line, Aveda has been behind the hair in many of the designer's presentations. While the hair-care brand has collaborated on hair accessories with designers in the past, Van Herpen herself had never delved into the beauty space before this collaboration.

Since Van Herpen exclusively designs couture pieces, her work is extremely exclusive and rarely available to the general public. The release of the collection's hair cuff, hair-pin set and cosmetic pouch will be a rare opportunity for Van Herpen to share her designs with a larger consumer base.

"I'm focused on haute couture and slow fashion, so the art pieces that we make for our clients are really coming in limited editions," Van Herpen tells Fashionista. "This collaboration and some other collaborations that I've been doing in architecture and other fields I think are beautiful extensions of the haute couture vision into a wider audience."

The Lagoon Nebula hair cuff is a gold-tone brass design made from the same laser-cutting technique as many of Van Herpen's couture pieces. "This particular cuff will fit for every texture and density of hair," says Beenders. "If you have very thick hair, it's easy to slide over your ponytail. But if your hair is finer, you can take strands of hair, wrap that around the base of the ponytail and then lay it on top. It's like jewelry for your hair."

The Henosis Hair Pin Set is made with the same laser-cutting technique and comes with three gold barrettes inspired by the "mystical unity" of the classical Greek word "Henosis." The third product in the collection, the Syntopia Cosmetic Pouch, is made from synthetic leather and recycled polyester fabric. The three pieces in the collection retail for $60 each.

As for whether more expansion into the beauty category is in the future, Van Herpen says, "I really believe in combining strengths. So I would definitely love to explore more into the beauty space, but I don't see it as a separate category within my own brand. I really feel that by collaboration, you bring in the expertise. By sharing knowledge you can actually go way beyond your own."

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