Bioluminescent Dress Glows in the Dark With Help of Microalgae

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Una publicación compartida por Iris van Herpen Official (@irisvanherpen)

Designer Iris van Herpen is no stranger to integrating futuristic materials and organic shapes into her garments. For her Sympoiesis haute couture collection debuting at Paris Couture Week, she included structures and fabrics that evoke the flow of the ocean and are almost as light as air. Central to the collection was nature; in fact, it was a main collaborator with the debut of a dress and leggings made of 125 million living bioluminescent microalgae.

The pieces comprise Pyrocystis Lunulam, which are single-cell, moon-shaped microorganisms. In the daylight, the algae have a white color with only a faint trace of blue. But when the wearer moves, the microalgae react in response to these motions, as if sensing a predator. This makes the dress emit a soft blue glow. Stella Maxwell, the model donning this one-of-a-kind outfit, walked down the runway in the dark.

The garment was created in collaboration with biodesigner Chris Bellamy, who has devoted his work to living materials. This “living look,” as described by van Herpen, was grown in seawater baths inside a custom nutrient gel. The microalgae were then molded into the protective membrane filled with liquid, which would become the dress. When the outfit is not being worn, it rests inside a glass immersion tank that replicates the light, humidity, temperature, and circadian rhythm of the microalgae's natural habitat.

As a living entity, the microalgae have a limited lifespan, and not even the designer knows when it all comes to an end. “That’s the beauty of it. It’s very much like a human being in that sense,” van Herpen told The New York Times. “It needs eight hours of sleep, it needs sunlight, it needs not too much stress.”

That's why, for all their work, the designer and her atelier see this dress as cultivated rather than constructed. “It’s been one of the most extraordinary processes—well, actually, I can say it has been the most extraordinary,” she says. “Because it’s not like creating a look; it’s like cultivating, nurturing something you need to take care of. And then you bond with it, and this is really beautiful.” Van Herpen told Vogue.

Van Herpen aims to spotlight our relationship to the ocean, both creatively and environmentally. “I think that’s the reason I am doing couture: to evolve the whole language of craftmanship and to find its new shapes and forms in the time that we live in,” she said. “It’s like a metaphor because we need to keep the earth alive to survive and we have to protect it. This is what the collection is really about—taking care of what gives us life, because the ocean is the largest ecosystem on the planet.”

To stay up to date with the designer, follow Iris van Herpen on Instagram.