At the forefront of high fashion and biomaterial innovation, Japanese biotech venture Spiber, a pioneer in man-made protein fiber, and acclaimed Dutch haute couture designer Iris van Herpen together unveiled one of the designer's two bridal looks during Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2025. This partnership represents a powerful dialogue between science and art—two pioneering voices united by a shared aspiration to redefine the future of fashion.
Both founded in 2007, Spiber and Iris van Herpen have followed parallel paths of radical experimentation: Spiber in biomaterial engineering, and Van Herpen in avant-garde couture design. Their collaboration signals a deep philosophical alignment, where creativity, technology, and sustainability are not separate pursuits, but interconnected forces shaping a new material narrative.
This shared belief is grounded in a common source of inspiration: nature. While Van Herpen draws from the forms, rhythms, and intelligence of the natural world in her designs, Spiber engineers entirely new proteins by designing DNA based on examples found in nature such as spider silk, cashmere fibers, silk cocoons, and more. The result is a new class of material, one not found in the natural world, yet containing the fingerprints of its underlying logic.