Story & heritage

On the official timeline, van Herpen marks 2010 as the moment she collaborated with Benthem Crouwel Architects to create the Water dress, a project that helped push her deeper into technology-led making. Later official news posts document the dress's further life with Daphne Guinness and Nick Knight's SHOWstudio Splash project.

The official live-broadcast announcement explains the process plainly: Knight filmed Guinness being struck by black and clear water, and van Herpen used that high-speed footage as reference imagery for a one-of-a-kind water dress. That origin story is why the piece still feels less like a garment and more like a frozen event.

Materials & craft

Water Dress is built around translation rather than textile novelty alone — the key craft move is turning transient splash forms into a stable couture silhouette. The resulting black structure appears to branch off the body in suspended ribbons and droplets, preserving the sense of chaos that the official SHOWstudio notes emphasize.

How to choose & style

The dress needs almost nothing added. Sharp hair, bare legs, and deliberate stillness let the splash forms stay uncanny; anything overly decorative would only interrupt the illusion.