Iris Van Herpen Internship

During those 5 months of my internship at Iris van Herpen I have been exposed and introduced to the way her company works and to the process of creating a fashion collection that was presented at Amsterdam International Fashion Week and afterwards to several exhibitions.

I have to give her a credit for organizing her company on her own, running it single handedly and reaching the top of her career at the same time. Having experienced her daily routine has been a great lesson, an inspiration and admiration.

Although the tasks I had to overtake during my work by Irises Company wasn’t exactly covering my bachelor degree specifications, I still have learned fare share of knowledge of how designer atelier runs and life cycle of a fashion collection from its birth to its glory.

Most beneficial tasks that were in my responsibility are:

- Draping several pieces; jackets, dresses and corset on a mannequin with creative cutting lines and realizing it in fabrics or other materials.

- Executing a custom made dress for Bjork.

- Adjusting fitting problems on models.

- Material tryouts and applying different techniques for its treatment.

- Organizing and searching material supply

- Involvement in organizing a fashion show.

Iris has trusted only several people with making patterns, independent decisions on materials and techniques, fitting adjustments and problem solving for executing garments and accessories. Most of those people were interns with Masters degree in fashion design that has been working with her for a long period of time but for some reason I was one of them. It did give me some freedom in my work and responsibility for outcome that was motivating me through the process.

Other majority of tasks that were mainly executing parts of a creative process for collection as in;

- Basic patterns tryouts for shape and decorating clothing with hand crafted elements.

- Producing and re-producing decorative objects from leather, fake leather, foil, hard and soft plastic...