Hasta La Ideas

Dutch shoe brand United Nude and fashion designer Iris van Herpen have collaborated to create crescent-shaped boots for her latest ready to wear collection shown at Paris Fashion Week.

For Van Herpen‘s Autumn Winter 2014 collection titled Biopiracy, the designer and United Nude worked together on two footwear designs.

The futuristic boots curve up and around the leg, encompassing the lower leg on both sides and looping behind the knee.

A long seam runs up the front of the upper before it opens at the top, while the back of the calf is left exposed.

Seven-inch-high heels cantilever from the back of the solid base, which continues the shape of the upper to the ground.

A peep-toe boot was also created in a similar style, but with a strap that wraps around the leg at ankle height instead of at the knee.

Black, cream and white leather was used for the designs, complimenting the colours of Van Herpen’s garments.

The Biopiracy collection was shown on Tuesday during Paris Fashion Week.

This is the ninth time United Nude and Van Herpen have worked together on footwear for her shows. “Working with Iris Van Herpen is each time a big challenge for us as she pushes boundaries with ideas for things that have never been done before,” said United Nude founder Rem D Koolhaas.

Last season they created 3D-printed shoes the resembled tree roots and the year before they added spikes made from semi-precious stones within the heels of platforms.

Dezeen interviewed Koolhaas last year, when he discussed United Nude’s “extreme theatre” shoe collaborations and talked about the future of 3D-printed footwear.

Here’s some information from Iris Van Herpen and United Nude:

United Nude make shoes with Iris Van Herpen for her Biopiracy collection

United Nude collaborates with Iris Van Herpen for shoes completing her collection for its 9th consecutive time. Nevertheless this is the first time that two instead of just one design graced the runway, in the form of the Biopiracy Boot and the Biopiracy peeptoe ankle Bootie, both on staggering 7 inch tall platform cantilevered heels.

The Biopiracy collection by Iris Van Herpen emerged from astonishment of companies’ patented human genes. As part of the show, Lawrence Malstaf created art installations, which developed the impression of models being weightless and breathless. In their half-sleep they seem bio-hacked, to slow down time and energy. Iris van Herpen and Lawrence Malstaf experiment with living objects, kinetic architecture and physical interaction through fashion in installation art.

A 3D printing collaboration with Julia Koerner and Materialise fuses the artisanal with the technical to create a kinetic dress which dances as it amplifies bodily movement. The Iris Van Herpen × United Nude Boot overrules the natural shape of the foot; this makes the graphically leather moulded boots futuristic sculptures extending the legs with a new silhouette into motion. Iris Van Herpen and United Nude is a match made in heaven from day one, as they are both not afraid of breaking boundaries by experimentation with design and technology.

Rem D Koolhaas: “Working with Iris Van Herpen is each time a big challenge for us as she pushes boundaries with ideas for things that have never been done before. Collaboration partners like Iris Van Herpen and Zaha Hadid give us way for our continuation in re-inventing shoes. United Nude was originally founded on this principle with our sculptural sandals just over ten years ago; breaking the rules of conventional ladies shoe-making, not for the sake if breaking them, but simply by not knowing them.”

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Iris van Herpen’s Biopiracy fashion collection appeared first on Dezeen.

Silicon details and latex panels featured in Royal College of Art graduate Xiao Li’s first London Fashion Week show.

Xiao Li‘s Autumn Winter 2014 collection included sections of latex that were moulded against knitwear to create texture.

Bumpy silicon strips were used around cuffs, necklines and hems, as well as to highlight pockets and seams.

Garments made from meshed sports material included bomber-style jackets and skirts. The porous fabric was also formed into billowing sleeves.

The icy palette of white and powder blue was influenced by the landscape of Iceland.

“Crisp shades of blue are injected onto a cool of solitary white base and silhouettes are accented with chalky forms of silicon,” said the designer.

A darker blue was used to create a stiff moulded top and a two-piece outfit with hems that appeared to be frosted.

Panels of latex have been created in shapes traditionally found in denim pieces, such as the top of a pair of dungarees and chunky pockets fronts.

Li was presented the Merit Award at the Fashion Scout talent showcase, which took place during London Fashion Week earlier this month.

She graduated from London’s Royal College of Art last year and showed plump pastel silicone garments moulded from knitwear as part of her final collection.

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Autumn Winter 2014 collection appeared first on Dezeen.

The fibrous metallic garments in Central Saint Martins graduate Graham Fan’s London Fashion Week collection are reminiscent of wire brushes used for cleaning the dishes.

MA Fashion graduate Graham Fan’s initial material experiments for his final collection were influenced by Thomas Heatherwick’s woven metal facade at Guy’s Hospital in London.

“As I began working on this collection, I created a piece of woven plastic textile inspired by the exterior of [Heatherwick’s] Boiler Suit,” he told Dezeen.

“I then looked into various traditional basketry and weaving sources, hoping to further craft some new textiles with different materials,” he added.

Metallic plastic cords were handwoven unevenly to create patterns for the jackets, tops and dresses, plus skirts with 1950s shapes. The threads loop back on themselves to form turtlenecks, cuffs and hems.

Fan incorporated mohair, leather strips and fish wire into some sections of the weave to add texture.

“Elastic fish wire was woven through the materials horizontally and vertically in order to create the uneven shimmering surface,” said Fan.

Fan showed the collection during the Central Saint Martins show at Somerset House last Friday, which took place as part of London Fashion Week.

Fellow graduate Ondrej Adamek’s range featured huge satin flowers that conceal the faces of models. Photographs are courtesy of Catwalking.com.

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evokes metallic pan scourers appeared first on Dezeen.

Fashion brand Pringle of Scotland has incorporated laser-sintered nylon fabric into garments for its Autumn Winter 2014 collection, shown yesterday at London Fashion Week.

Pringle of Scotland collaborated with material scientist Richard Beckett to create a series of 3D-printed fabrics for the collection using selective laser sintering (SLS).

To produce textiles that could move like traditional cloths, Beckett chose specific machinery that could create the tiny nylon parts needed to keep the material flexible.

“I used an EOS Formiga P100 SLS system due to its ability to build at high definition, one of the few systems that would allow you to build such complex movable parts at this size,” Beckett told Dezeen.

The printed sections were then handwoven into the knitwear through small hooks on the underside or stitched on top of the wool.

Bands of the material formed cuffs for jackets while larger elements created diamond-shaped Argyle patterns across pullovers and sleeveless tops.

3D-printed garments have previously appeared in Haute Couture fashion collections by designers such as Iris van Herpen and a bespoke garment for Dita Von Teese, but Pringle of Scotland claims that this is the first time the technology has been used for ready to wear.

“I wanted to explore a move away from the more sculptural costume approach of such pieces, towards a more material, haptic-based approach,” said Pringle of Scotland head of design Massimo Nicosia.

The Autumm Winter 2014 collection was presented during this season’s London Fashion Week, which concludes tomorrow.

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Pringle of Scotland’s ready to wear garments appeared first on Dezeen.