Who is Iris Van Herpen? Here’s what you need to know about the designer who dominated the Met Gala 2022

The first Monday in May (AKA the Met Gala) is the most important date in every fashion lover’s calendar. It’s the one night a year when all of fashion’s ‘laws’ break down, and designers can truly let their creativity and imagination run wild.

So this year’s theme, Gilded Glamour, was the perfect fit. The American gilded age was a time of rapid economic growth. Industrialism caused a massive influx of European immigrants which resulted in industry booming and New York becoming the multicultural city it is today. Fabrics became easier to produce and more accessible than ever before. This meant that dresses were constructed using many layers of different fabrics and textures, which were then complemented with bows, lace, ruffles and jewels. The age is characterised by excess and opulence; exactly what the Met Gala theme called for.

Surprisingly though, one of the most popular designers amongst this year’s celebrity attendees was Iris Van Herpen: her designs were worn by Dove Cameron, Teyana Taylor, Fredrik Robertsson and Winnie Harlow. Van Herpen’s designs are futuristic and phantasmagorical, two things one wouldn’t automatically associate with the fashion of the late 1800s. One might therefore ask: what are Van Herpen’s designs doing on the gilded red carpet? 

Dove Cameron gave us the answer when she spoke about her dress – which took about 600 hours to make – saying that, “it plays into the theme of “Gilded Age” in the way that it’s incredibly structured, all about shape, but it’s also honouring Iris’s unique vision.”