Spiber and Iris van Herpen Weave the Future of Fashion at Paris Haute Couture Week
Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week is always a stage for the visionary, but this season (Autumn/Winter 2025), a moment on the runway transcended pure design. It was a statement, a powerful dialogue between radical innovation and vanguard artistry.
Acclaimed Dutch designer Iris van Herpen, known for her intricate and otherworldly creations, unveiled one of her two bridal looks in a groundbreaking collaboration with Spiber Inc., the Japanese biotech venture at the forefront of man-made protein fiber.
This partnership is not just about a dress; it’s about a shared philosophy. Both founded in 2007, Spiber and the Maison of Iris van Herpen have followed astonishingly parallel paths of radical experimentation. While van Herpen has consistently pushed the boundaries of traditional couture, Spiber has been pioneering a new class of materials in its lab. Now, their journeys have converged, united by a belief that creativity, technology, and sustainability are not separate pursuits, but interconnected forces that must shape the future of our industry.
The common thread? A profound source of inspiration: nature.
Where van Herpen draws from the forms, rhythms, and intelligence of the natural world in her designs, Spiber literally engineers entirely new proteins by designing DNA based on examples found in nature, from spider silk to cashmere fibers. The result is Brewed Protein™ fiber, a material not found in the wild, yet containing the underlying logic and beauty of living systems. It’s biomimicry at its most fundamental level.
Speaking on the collaboration, Iris van Herpen noted this very connection: “Biomimicry is ever-present in Spiber’s approach and that is truly similar to our own methods… Fusing the organic with the innovative, recreating nature’s way of making a material, starting with a protein… Spiber has been able to translate a complex technology to meet the needs of designers and create something truly wearable, which is a rare quality.” (Press release)
And wearable it is. The material forms the foundation of the breathtaking bridal look, where sheer organza is cut in gradient-sized moonshapes and heat-bonded to the laser-cut Brewed Protein™ fabric. Hundreds of delicate, white coral petals are then meticulously stitched onto a nude illusion tulle, spiraling down into a translucent, twisted train. It is a dress that seems to float and flow with a graceful, almost ethereal, quality.
Spiber’s Brewed Protein™ fiber is the only man-made protein fiber to have been successfully industrialized, positioning the company as a global leader in the sustainable materials revolution. For Spiber’s Co-founder and Representative Executive Officer, Kazuhide Sekiyama, the collaboration is an extraordinary manifestation of mutual values. “Our Brewed Protein™ fiber was born from the same curiosity that drives Iris’s work: a desire to explore the boundaries of what is possible when we look to nature for questions, without focusing solely on answers,” Sekiyama said.
This piece is more than just a runway moment; it is a statement of possibility. It is an artistic and technological blueprint for a new material narrative in fashion, one where fabrics are not just worn, but experienced. Both Spiber and Iris van Herpen believe that collaboration across disciplines is essential to addressing the complex challenges facing our world, and in doing so, they have shown us a path forward.
And this is just the beginning. The teams will continue to explore new possibilities, pushing the boundaries of what fashion can be when science and art are inextricably linked. The future, it seems, is being woven with a new kind of thread.
