The Brooklyn Museum Presents The North American Debut of ‘Iris van Herpen : Sculpting the Senses’
NEW YORK – January 2026– The Brooklyn Museum is proud to announce the North American debut of Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses, a major exhibition running from 16 May to 6 December 2026.
This global presentation celebrates one of the most forward-thinking fashion designers of this generation, exploring the convergence of traditional couture artisanship with innovative technologies.
Organised by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, this extensive exhibition reveals the experimental spirit that has reshaped 21st-century fashion.
Visitors will witness a journey ranging from the micro to the macro, exploring the body’s relationship to space, clothing, and the environment.
The presentation includes works by artists such as Philip Beesley and Nick Knight, alongside natural history specimens like fossils and coral, which deeply inform the designer's creative process.
Van Herpen is renowned for transcending conventional clothing norms. Her work draws on biomimicry, fractal geometry, and neuroscience to transform cutting-edge discoveries into ethereal fabrics and sculptural gowns.
These designs, worn by global luminaries including Beyoncé, Björk, and Lady Gaga, represent a fusion of disciplines that challenges the future of fashion in a rapidly changing world.
The exhibition offers an interdisciplinary, multisensory experience, enhanced by rare archival materials and a soundscape by composer Salvador Breed.
Building on the Brooklyn Museum’s legacy of defining fashion exhibitions and its roots as an institute of both arts and sciences, this marks the first major New York presentation of Van Herpen’s work.
The exhibition is supported by the Simons Foundation and is part of its ‘Infinite Sums’ initiative, reflecting a shared mission to inspire awe and foster connections between people and science.
Additional support is provided by DutchCultureUSA, a programme of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the United States, underscoring the international significance of this cultural exchange.
About the Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
With roots as an institute of both arts and sciences, the Museum is dedicated to bridging cultures and shared human experiences through its extensive collections and dynamic exhibitions.
About Iris Van Herpen
Van Herpen opened her own label Iris van Herpen in 2007.
In 2011, the Dutch designer became a guest-member of the Parisian Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, part of the Fédération française de la couture.
Since then, Van Herpen has continuously exhibited her new collections at Paris Fashion Week.
Iris van Herpen stands for a reciprocity between craftsmanship and innovation in technique and materials.
She creates a modern view on Haute Couture that combines fine handwork techniques with digital technology .
Van Herpen forces fashion to the extreme contradiction between beauty and regeneration.
It is her unique way to reevaluate reality and so to express and underline individuality.
The essence of van Herpen is expressing the character and emotions of a woman and to extend the shape of the feminine body in detail.
She mixes craftsmanship- using old and forgotten techniques- with innovation and materials inspired on the world to come.
Van Herpen's work has been included in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris.
