This Couture Dress Is Made of Hundreds of Glass Bubbles
Historically, couture collections are where designers really work their craft. Score a runway ticket, and you're guaranteed to see hand-worked, divinely intricate pieces that show off some of the fashion industry's most time-trusted methods of creating garments (the group tasked with keeping things official, Le Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, was established in 1868). When looking at the modern line-up, the designer most likely to shake things up is Iris van Herpen, who is known for experimenting with modern techniques like 3-D printing.
Her fall 2016 couture collection, presented in Paris on Sunday, nicely proved that she hasn't lost any of her construction curiosity.
To create a dress that appeared made of weightless bubbles, van Herpen coated hand-blown glass spheres with silicone and let the wow moment swell with the sort of structure such "fabric" allows: the would-be knee-length dress was crafted so the skirt was flared out and up, permanently mimicking Marilyn Monroe's white dress caught over a pesky subway grate.
Further dabbling included Swarovski crystals in silicone (used for a naked dress that seemed dusted with dewdrops), rubber stitched onto tulle,
...and a wire-framed dress that was inspired by sound waves.
