The Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova was spotted on the BFAs red carpet, last Monday, in London, wearing an Iris van Herpen dress, result of the recycling of 800 plastic water bottles.

By Ludmilla Intravaia

After the Magnetosphere dress (more info here) and the Holobiont dress (more info here), Iris van Herpen continues her exploration of recycled plastic as an adjuvant to sustainable and circular fashion. The Dutch designer thus collaborated with Evian to create the Mimesis dress, especially for the 2021 Fashion Awards which took place in London, on November 29th.

The Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova, ambassador for the mineral water brand of the French group Danone, walked the red carpet at the British fashion awards in this dress made of 28% silk and 72% recycled plastic from bottles of Evian. “The bottles were transformed into grains, then into threads as fine as hair, almost invisible and completely transparent”, explained Iris van Herpen to the magazine Numéro, a few hours before the event: “Of course, the Evian fiber offers a very different drape than silk. We called it 'liquid fabric' for its almost aquatic sheen."

The result of 750 hours of work for Iris van Herpen’s teams, in the designer' studio in Amsterdam, the dress is indeed inspired by the theme of water, dear to Iris van Herpen. "I wanted to go to the very source of this collaboration by transcribing the fluidity of the water and the patterns of the waves in the silhouette, but also in the details of the piece", told the designer to Numéro, adding: " The dress is made up of thousands of small, layered waves, which, combined with the delicacy of the fabric, create movement when the body moves.”

Also using laser cutting technology, the Mimesis dress plays on shades from white to blue, echoing the aquatic element.

“I hope this dress will shape people’s perception of upcycling and recycling plastic by reinforcing the different forms the product life cycle can take, highlighting that we all have the power to change our future for the better”, concluded Iris van Herpen, in her note of intent, posted on her Instagram account.

Check out how the Mimesis dress is made in the video below.

Note, moreover, that the British Fashion Awards also welcomed on their red carpet another innovation linked to the circularity of fashion, recycling and eco-design: the sewing thread of the Belgian start-up Resortecs (more info in this Boudoir Numérique article).

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