After its celebrated run at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, Iris van Herpen's monumental retrospective has crossed the Atlantic. Sculpting the Senses opens at the Brooklyn Museum on May 16, bringing more than 140 of the Dutch designer's otherworldly couture creations to New York for the first time.
Van Herpen has spent two decades operating in a space that most fashion houses do not even have the vocabulary for. Her garments are not simply clothes, they are architectural propositions, biological hypotheses rendered in silk and Plexiglas. Working alongside scientists, engineers, and architects, she has built a practice that treats the body as a site for exploring morphogenesis, marine biology, and planetary motion.
The Brooklyn edition builds on the Paris presentation while folding in more recent collections, including Sympoeisis from 2025. That collection alone has already generated headlines: the Living Algae look, developed with biodesigner Chris Bellamy, embeds 125 million living Pyrocystis lunula algae directly into a silicone and silk organza garment. The algae emit light in response to movement and require carefully controlled humidity, temperature, and light cycles to survive inside the museum. It is couture as living organism, equal parts fashion statement and science experiment.
The exhibition is organised around thematic zones, water, marine biology, outer space, and human perception, each pairing garments with contemporary artworks, scientific specimens, fossils, and an immersive soundscape by Dutch composer Salvador Breed. Works by artists including Wim Delvoye, Tara Donovan, and Katsumata Chieko sit alongside van Herpen's creations, dissolving the boundary between gallery and runway.
Pieces worn by Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Grimes, and Jennifer Lopez all feature, alongside iconic van Herpen designs like the Hydromedusa Dress, the Sensory Seas collection, and the hypnotic Shift Souls pieces with their laser-cut Komon Koubou textiles. The show runs through December 6, 2026, giving New York a full seven months to experience what happens when haute couture leaves its own bubble and walks into the laboratory.
Tickets are available now via the Brooklyn Museum website.
