Forget Fabric. How about Plasma? Iris Van Herpen’s Sonic Starquakes

A fiery crimson glow flickers inside two curved glass forms, surrounded by a haze of iridescent spheres. It shifts with movement, suspended against the body. The whole form lies between matter and motion. Beneath the glass is something found not on Earth, but among the stars. Plasma. This is Iris Van Herpen’s Helix Nebula dress, unveiled as part of her latest collection. Here, the fourth state of matter takes an unexpected place on the runway. 

Helix Nebula Dress, 2026. Credit: Iris Van Herpen.

For Van Herpen, the bridge between science and fashion is nothing new. Since founding her eponymous label in 2007, the Dutch designer is known for challenging what clothing can look like, and even what it is made from. Her work spans dance, art, architecture, biology and physics, often transforming ideas that exist beyond the visible into something tangible. 

Sonic Starquakes, her Fall-Winter 2026 collection presented at Paris Haute Couture Week on 6^th of July 2026, takes that further. The title refers to oscillations and waves that occur within stars. Much like seismic waves allow seismologists to study the Earth's interior, waves travelling through a star reveal its structure. For Van Herpen, however, the phenomenon is less about explaining astrophysics and more about making the invisible tangible. Her collection explores what happens when sound, energy and movement are used as creative materials. One of her inspirations was Margaret Watts Hughes, a Welsh singer and inventor who used her Eidophone to make sound visible. As she sang into its membrane, fine powders moved with the vibrations of her voice, creating patterns across the surface. The idea behind this was that forces moving through us can echo those shaping the universe. 

Margaret Watts Hughes and her Eidophone, 1885. Credit: sound-art-text

The Helix Nebula brings that idea straight into the body. This was created with plasma specialist Mundy Hepburn and glass artist Marc Barreda. The dress features a pair of structural, hand-blown glass forms with plasma. These are surrounded by 10,000 glass spheres across a layer of illusion tulle. As the model moves and touches the glass, the plasma responds, shifting and glowing around the body. The model is a part of the electrical interaction rather than simply wearing it. Each movement creates a physical connection between the wearer and the garment, making the body an active part of the design. In this sense, the cosmic forces at the heart of Sonic Starquakes are no longer distant or abstract but something the wearer can physically engage with. The result is a red nebula-like glow created by electrons releasing light as they move between energy levels. 

Credit: Iris Van Herpen.

Then comes the Fractal Universe Gown, where electricity takes centre stage. Days before the show, the dress was placed in a particle accelerator and cryogenically preserved. This trapped electrons in a structure and converted them to electrical energy. The plan was for the model to release energy on the runway, sending out branching flashes of light. Still, plans changed; the garment technicians were sent into a frenzy, and the legendary designer herself had to watch her marvellous creation erupt before her eyes. The stored energy within the dress that was set to become a spectacle on the runway, instead, was a spectacle backstage. The stored energy within the dress began to discharge on its own, before the front row had a chance to see it happen. This created microscopic luminous columns of plasma that cracked across the surface of the design. An unexpected turn became one of the collection’s most memorable details; a reminder of the volatile nature of the materials Van Herpen is challenging the industry with.

Credit: Iris Van Herpen.

What makes Sonic Starquakes so intriguing is that the dresses are constructed in couture, but their appearance is determined by a formula that can’t be stitched into place. Science isn't used to make fashion look futuristic; it's involved in making the clothes. However, the process of couture is inherently slow, and these experiments exist alongside painstaking handwork. 

The collection results in a unique experience of being able to view the runway as a laboratory where the experiments are designed to be worn. Sonic Starquakes suggests that the next frontier of fashion is not a new fabric but the forces that act through them. In Van Herpen's world, energy can glow, electricity can draw, and plasma can become part of a garment. The question is no longer what clothes are made of, but what they might become.