paris couture week

Iris van Herpen Casts Another ‘Game of Thrones’ Actress

Photo: @irisvanherpen/Instagram

Iris van Herpen, the Dutch designer who fuses technology with exceptional craftsmanship, is no stranger to innovation and adaptation, and the pandemic hasn’t stopped her. In lieu of a live runway show for Paris couture, van Herpen debuted a video titled Transmotion, featuring a one-of-a-kind dress of the same name on Carice van Houten (a.k.a. Melisandre, the witchy dom on HBO’s Game of Thrones).

It’s not the first time the designer has collaborated with an actress from the show: In 2015, she cast Gwendoline Christie as a centerpiece at her spring-summer 2016 runway show, where the actress lay flat on a stone platform as a dress was 3-D printed onto her. This year, van Herpen focused on a single dress with van Houten specifically in mind; she was drawn to the actress’s strength, fragility, and their shared Dutch heritage.

“The dress has little black seeds that connect to stems that connect to branches that grow into very fragile translucent leaves, and it all sprouts from the center of the body,” van Herpen told the New York Times. “It is about birth and growth and formation. I wanted to express the experience of these last months without being literal, and symbolize the new beginning of things.”

Iris van Herpen Casts Another Game of Thrones Actress