Parley collaborates with designer Iris van Herpen to create the 'Holobiont' dress – inspired by biology and made with Parley Ocean Plastic®

Model Nyarach Abouch Ayuel wearing Iris van Herpens’ Holobiont dress. Images by Gio Staiano.

Iris van Herpen’s pioneering work is often described as ethereal and transcendental; radiating shapes that reference the relationship between the human body and the natural world. For her Spring/Summer 2021 collection, the Dutch fashion designer explores the rich and deeply fragile interconnectedness of an unfamiliar world: the enigmatic fungal empire and the fine, life-bearing threads of mycelium that weave together forests and fields. The collection takes inspiration from the existence of this winding ‘fabric of life’ in the undergrowth, as detailed in biologist Merlin Sheldrake’s recent book, Entangled Life. As he notes, “fungi is the ecological connective tissue, the living seam by which much of the world is stitched.”

As part of the ‘Roots of Rebirth’ collection, Parley worked with van Herpen and her team as her eco-innovation partner to curate one of the looks, ‘Holobiont’. The dress employs Parley Ocean Plastic® fabric made from upcycled marine debris collected from coastlines around the world. Printed and incised into thousands of fine trilateral tessellations, the fabric initiates a fragile symbiosis with the skin through seamless gradients in translucency.

Above images courtesy of Iris van Herpen Header image by Myrthe Giesbers — Above images courtesy of Iris van Herpen
Header image by Myrthe Giesbers

“Iris van Herpen draws inspiration from the natural world in a way that others don’t see nature — the construction and the ingenuity behind it”

— Cyrill Gutsch, Founder and CEO of Parley

Speaking to Vogue about this new use of Ocean Plastic®, van Herpen explained that “[couture] clients expect the highest quality out there, so you don’t want to go sustainable if you lower the quality. We are now at a moment where the quality [between an organic silk and a recycled polyester] is completely equal. It’s really a matter of decision, it’s not a matter of choosing a quality. There’s not a lot of reason not to use sustainable materials anymore, other than changing your mindset.”

Taking cues from the natural world, Roots of Rebirth features 20 other looks inspired by roots, fungi, mycelium and spores. During the show, models appeared to drift amid intertwined branches with each stride, the entanglement of each garment resembling roots of regeneration. As the collection notes, the mysteries of the undergrowth “influence the composition of our sacred planet selflessly through shape-shifting silhouettes that bring the promise of a renaissance and regeneration”. Holobiont and the other looks are “dedicated to the importance of our being and the valiance of nature. With the persistence of time, evolution prevails, and while these beings are never truly fixed, they exist merely in a state of flux, a rippling fabric of life itself, dancing to the benevolent beat of rebirth.”