Iris van Herpen(Dutch, born 1984

Dress

Autumn/winter 2013-14, haute couture

Hand-stitched strips of laser-cut made silicone feathers, machine-sewn white cotton twill, hand-applied silicone-coated gull skulls with synthetic pearls and glass eyes.

"The process (of making this dress) is very complicated. We start with pouring the silicone...When we're happy with the consistency, we start the process of laser cutting. We laser cut strokes, and we do two strokes at the same time.... Once the sheets have been cleaned we stitch them by hand to the fabric of the base dress...(The birds are) maded from the same fabric as the base dress with a small cage inside, and then attached directly to the dress...And the heads are real bird-head, skeletons coated in silicone, with glass eyes and pearls."

-Iris van Herpen