At Paris Fashion Week 2025, Iris van Herpen shared a glowing couture dress made from 125 million living bioluminescent algae, blurring the line between fashion and science.
By Dara Clariza Evangelista
You’ve probably seen the videos. Glowing waves crashing on tropical beaches, lit from within like something from a dream. In Life of Pi, they shimmered around the lifeboat in that surreal ocean. In Moana, her grandmother, as the stingray, made the ocean pulse with light, guiding its chosen one home. But those scenes, as fantastical as they were, now have a real-life counterpart, on a runway.
At the 2025 Paris Haute Couture Week, avant-garde designer Iris van Herpen debuted her latest collection, Sympoiesis, and with it, a creation that could very well belong to another realm: a “living” dress inhabited by 125 million bioluminescent microalgae. Yes, it glows. Yes, it responds to movement. Yes, it is alive.
Crafted in collaboration with biodesigner Chris Bellamy of Bio Crafted, the algae—Pyrocystis lunula—were grown in sea-water baths over several months, nurtured in a nutrient-rich gel, then molded into a translucent protective membrane that allows both light and air to pass through. The result is a dress that flickers with light as the model moves—worn by Stella Maxwell during the show, and exists not as a constructed garment, but as a cultivated one.
Rather than tailoring, van Herpen’s process was more akin to marine caretaking. The algae’s circadian rhythms, temperature, humidity, and environment were all carefully calibrated to mirror their natural ocean habitat.
“The oceans are what keep us alive, and we still know so little about them,” van Herpen shares on their Instagram. “We need to be conscious about taking care of everything that takes care of us. It’s that symbiotic relationship that is always part of my work, but it’s becoming more and more urgent.”
As the “Living Look” emerged, it was surrounded by an ambient biospheric light sculpture by artist Nick Verstand, adding to the oceanic glow of the show’s opening moment. Behind the scenes, refrigerated trucks, wireless humidity alarms, and climate-controlled chambers were all employed just to get the algae to Paris, alive and glowing. But the living dress was just the beginning.
The rest of Sympoiesis was a hypnotic blend of material science and haute couture. Gossamer gowns floated like jellyfish; wedding dresses were spun from lab-grown proteins. A standout look used Spiber’s “brewed protein,” a biodegradable fiber engineered from bio-designed DNA, paired with coral-inspired embroidery and weightless, wave-like organza.
The show was more than a collection, it was a multi-sensory experience. Francis Kurkdjian crafted a bespoke scent that rippled through the venue like a tide, while choreography and fabric movement played with the illusion of water and breath. Even van Herpen’s references reached deep: Loïe Fuller’s dance, Gaia theory, ocean systems, and biomimicry merged into a single, fluid spectacle.
At its core, Sympoiesis challenges fashion’s relationship with nature. With a living dress as its centerpiece, it asks us to consider: What if fashion wasn’t something we made, but something we nurtured?
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