A BIGGER SPLASH

Elza Luijendijk posing in Iris van Herpen’s *Splash Dress* • *System* Issue No. 10 • Sølve Sundsbø

How Iris van Herpen’s magnificent Splash Dress could have easily been donned by the goddess Latona, standing atop her Louis XIV era fountain in the Gardens of Versailles. It is a noteworthy coincidence that the effervescent theme of water was the shared inspiration behind the Sun God’s mythological fountain and van Herpen’s extraordinary garment. As the Dutch designer so insightfully noted “I see my body as the architecture of my mind and strangely enough I am merely water! The water-dress symbolizes for me the incomprehensible magic of the body.”

*Le Bassin de Latone* (The Fountain of Latona) • Circa 1687 - 1689 • Jules Hardouin-Mansart • Chateau de Versailles, France • Image courtesy of J.C. N’Diaye via Jardins de France

“Iris van Herpen’s Spring 2011 collection grew out of an invitation from the Amsterdam Centre for Architecture (ARCAM) to participate in an exhibition that paired designers and architects. Van Herpen was partnered with Benthem Crouwel Architects, whose addition to Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum is known as the bathtub. All it needed, thought Van Herpen, was some water, and she challenged herself to design a dress that looked like a splash of H20. The result was an astonishing transparent piece made of a proprietary acrylic that remains transparent even after being heated with hair guns and shaped by pliers. The Splash dress became the catalyst for Van Herpen’s breakthrough Crystallization collection, in which the designer tried to capture water in its varying forms…“ • Laird Borrelli-Persson for Vogue Runway

Image 3.JPG — Visualisation of Iris van Herpen's *Splash Dress* • Image courtesy of Roland Didier via SHOWstudio

“The theme of the Latona Fountain is taken from the myth of Latona, the Roman incarnation of the Greek goddess Leto. Latona bore the gods Apollo and Diana by Zeus, which incurred the hatred of Zeus' consort Juno. She forbade any mortals to give hospitality to Latona and her children, who were forced to wander the earth fleeing Juno's persecution, until at last they came to Lycia. A thirsty Latona attempted to drink from a local pond, but the inhabitants, obeying Juno's command, waded into the water and kicked up the mud from the bottom of the pond, so that Latona and her children could not drink. Enraged at their treatment of her, Latona cursed the Lycians to live in their pond forever, and they were transformed into frogs as punishment.”

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