‘Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion'

When: Feb. 4-May 1

Admission: Included with regular admission of $19.95, $14.95 for 65 and over, $11.95 for students with ID and kids 3-18

Where: Carnegie Museum of Art, Oakland

Details: 412-622-3131 or cmoa.org

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Updated 17 hours ago

At the young age of 32, Iris van Herpen (her first name is pronounced EE-ris) is already a superstar in her field.

Her cutting-edge, futuristic fashion is as much about science and technology as it is about clothing. She draws from the intricacies of nature in microbes, the precision of 3-D printing, unusual materials — metal gauze, silicon, hand-blown glass, magnets — and many hours of meticulous handcrafting.

Her “Transforming Fashion” exhibit visits the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland from Feb. 4 to May 1, the third stop on its North American tour. The exhibit includes highlights from 15 collections created over the past seven years. Organized by the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the exhibit will visit seven North American cities.

“We look at this work as something beautiful, provocative, inspiring — that looks at the human body as muse, as a basis for the form,” says Rachel Delphia, the Carnegie's Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman curator of decorative arts and design, who is organizing the Pittsburgh stop.

“If you come in and say, ‘That would be hard to wear' or ‘I can't sit down in that,' you'd be missing the point,” Delphia says. “These are really breathtaking garments that create a different experience around the body — wearable sculpture.”

Van Herpen's couture line is not strictly for the museum set. You've probably seen some pieces already. Trendsetting fashion icons — Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Bjork — are customers. In the sci-fi thriller “Lucy,” Scarlett Johansson's silver-studded black dress is a van Herpen. Her costume designs graced the stages of Paris Opera Ballet and New York City Ballet. Look for her wickedly menacing “Biopiracy Boots” in Taylor Swift's “Bad Blood” video — and in the exhibition.

Her pieces were included in the 2016 “Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her most recent runway show was part of Couture Week in Paris on Jan. 23, acclaimed by the likes of Vogue and the New York Times.

“Scientific ideas underpin a lot of her designs,” Delphia says. “As a whole, the collections have a very dystopian sci-fi feel to it all.”

The van Herpen show joins a lineup of recent and upcoming fashion-inclined exhibits gracing Pittsburgh museums. The excitement generated last year at the Frick Art Museum with “Killer Heels” will be followed by “Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear” this fall. Costumes from “The Wiz Live!” went on display at the August Wilson Center this past fall.

Is fashion displayed as art a trend? Well, maybe for Pittsburgh.

“I've been doing this since 1994,” says Mark Wilson, chief curator at the Groninger, one of the three co-curators of the exhibition. “I don't want to say it's a trend. We've always been doing it as contemporary art exhibits.”

Wilson and the Groninger have been connected with van Herpen for some time.

“I've been working together with Iris for probably about seven years,” Wilson says. “When I found out about her and saw what she was doing, I thought she was an incredible talent. So we decided to put money into her and start collecting her work to build an archive.”

Wilson points out that a single piece can involve a year of effort to produce. “It takes a lot of money to do what she needs to do. So we try to support her the best we can.”

The Groninger owns about 30 of the 45 pieces in the show, he says.

“People are not only interested in the fashion aspect, but also the science, the technology, and the craftsmanship,” Wilson says. “I consider it to be sculpture. I consider it to be art. I am only interested in fashion when it works on an art level or conceptual and craftsman level.”

“Transforming Fashion” takes over 9,000 square feet in the three Heinz Galleries. Catch the 45-minute looping film for an introduction to van Herpen's fashions on the runway. Bring your earbuds to enjoy a Spotify playlist that has been created by the Carnegie to enhance the viewing experience.

“People who love fashion will love it,” Delphia says. “And people who think they're not up for a fashion exhibition may surprise themselves and find some really interesting things to love about it as well.”

Sally Quinn is a Tribune-Review contributing writer.

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