Latest news with #Spiber
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Material World: Decathlon Runs with Rheon, Spiber Goes Dutch in Paris
Material World is a weekly roundup of innovations and ideas within the materials sector, covering news from emerging biomaterials and alternative leathers to sustainable substitutes and future-proof fibers. Spiber and Dutch high fashion designer Iris Van Herpen brought science and style to Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2025. Both collaborators take inspiration straight from the source: nature (they were both founded in 2007, too). While Van Herpen channels the natural world's forms and rhythms for her designs, Spiber looks to protective efforts—like silk cocoons and spider webs—to engineer new proteins. 'Biomimicry is ever-present in Spiber's approach and that is truly similar to our own methods,' Van Herpen said. 'Fusing the organic with the innovative, recreating nature's way of making a material, starting with a protein.' Spiber translated this complex technology to meet designer needs and create something truly wearable; something the futuristic designer said is a rare quality. 'At Spiber, we believe in the expressive power of materials—their ability to tell stories, to inspire emotion, and to redefine our relationship with nature,' said Kazuhide Sekiyama, Spiber's co-founder and representative executive officer. 'Working with Iris Van Herpen, whose designs go beyond the physical to evoke the beauty of life's complexity, has resulted in an extraordinary manifestation of our mutual values.' The Japanese biotech company's engineered protein formed the foundation of the haute couture bridal look, which comprised sheer organza cut in 'gradient-sized moon-shapes' and heat-bonded to the laser cut Brewed Protein fabric boning, the partners said, before 'hundreds of white coral petals' were stitched upward onto a nude illusion tulle, spiraling down into a transcalent, or heat-permeable, twisted train. 'I feel Brewed Protein fiber brings a lightness and a softness that I'm looking for, resulting in fabric that floats around the skin. It has a very attractive, organic, natural presence that's embodied in the whole look,' Van Herpen said. 'The Spiber team and I share the same attention to detail and texture—the sensorial qualities of the material.' The feeling was mutual. With a shared ambition to keep pushing material boundaries, the teams also believe cross-disciplinary collaboration is 'essential' to address the complex challenges facing fashion and the environment. 'Brewed Protein was born from the same curiosity that drives Iris's work: a desire to explore the boundaries of what is possible when we look to nature for questions, without focusing solely on answers,' Sekiyama said. 'This collaboration reflects a vision of fashion that is both sensorial and systemic, where fabrics are not just worn, but experienced—and where innovation arises from a deep sensitivity and curiosity toward the living world.' More from Sourcing Journal Chain Reaction: Asendia's Hendrick Kummeling on Why Strategic Flexibility is the Best Defense Against the Uncontrollable Is Warehouse Robotics' Future Shaped Like a Human? Adobe Projects 3,200% Increase in Gen AI Traffic During Amazon Prime Day Event Forestry cooperative Södra is combining artificial intelligence and automated data with nascent working methods to keep members in the loop with an updated forest management plan toolkit. The largest forest-owner association in Sweden partnered with AI company Terra Labs to launch the initiative. 'We are now on the brink of a technological leap that will give us access to automated forestry data in a new way,' said Peter Karlsson, head of Södra Skog. 'Empowering our members in their forest ownership and decision-making is a key part of our mission and we aim to create even better decision support for forest owners.' That breakthrough includes streamlining efforts using automated forestry data to reduce the need for field measurements, among other efficiencies. Södra is developing its own Planner App, used on a tablet in conjunction with new remote sensing data, the company said. To do so—aka develop planners' tools using remote sensing and 'next-generation AI' technology—Södra tapped the Swedish startup that inventories and analyses forests, in real-time, to enable the industry's next significant tech shift. The long-term partnership will ensure 'stable access to highly accurate and frequently updated data,' the joint development said, with collaborative efforts to adapt and train the AI model now ongoing for several months. More specifically, Terra Labs 'develops software using satellite data and AI for monitoring and analyzing land and related activities from a spatial viewpoint,' according to Crunchbase. The platform also reported that Terra Labs received seed backing from Norrsken VC, a European impact investor that participated in Syre's $100 million Series A funding round in May 2024. 'We've contributed various perspectives to the development process and have now found solutions that provide us with very high-quality forest information,' Karlsson said. 'We are leading the market here and will soon be able to offer Södra's members the best possible information about their forests, which we hope will enhance the member experience.' The app for forest planners is expected to launch this fall. In parallel, the forest management plan will be developed as a product. Ideally, Södra will make more information accessible via Min skogsgård, the OnceMore developer's membership portal that roughly translates to 'my forest farm.' In turn, users can plan with the reportedly dynamic tools that will give members 'greater opportunities to actively engage' with forest management plans. Global sports brand Decathlon has partnered with British materials technology company Rheon Labs to bring advanced material science to the everyday athlete. 'Decathlon's belief that innovation should serve everyone aligns perfectly with our own,' Stephen Bates, CEO at Rheon Labs, said. 'Rheon started in elite sport; now, this partnership will unlock that same level of performance for millions more.' The collaboration equips the sporting goods retailer with access to Rheon's full technology platform—including current and future efforts in strain-rate sensitive materials—to develop apparel that bolsters control, comfort and performance during physical activity. Strain-rate sensitive means that Rheon's patented polymer strands remain soft and flexible during everyday movement but stiffen up in response to impact. 'Innovation truly matters when it empowers everyone,' said Aurelien Corbier, Decathlon's textile innovation leader. 'By partnering with Rheon Labs, we're taking materials designed for athletes and making them accessible to all. This aligns perfectly with our focus on providing excellent products for everyone, leading to better comfort, control and performance.' The partnership's first project, a Kiprun running tight, was designed to focus on energy and reduce muscle movement. Additional developments are underway across other categories, with the first few technologies set to drop in 2026. Portuguese cellulosic pulp producer Altri will acquire a majority stake in AeoniQ, a Swiss-based cleantech spin-off of HeiQ Materials. In turn, the partners will build a commercial-scale plant to produce the 'climate-positive' cellulosic yarn. Altri's investment, including a capital increase, will build out the commercial-scale AeoniQ production capacity, in line with the spin-out's desire to diversify into high-value, low-impact cellulosic applications. 'This agreement gives concrete form to Altri's strategy of moving up the value chain and investing in next-generation materials,' said José Soares de Pina, CEO of Altri. 'We are scaling a game-changing innovation that aligns perfectly with our commitment to build a more renewable world.' Per that agreement, the industrial plant will be constructed at Altri's Caima dissolving pulp mill in Constancia, Santarem. Construction is expected to begin in 2026 with an initial capacity of 1.750 tons per year. On top of the already-existing pilot lines in Austria, a pre-industrial plant in Portugal is expected to launch in early 2026 to accelerate prototyping, partnerships and capsule collections. Hugo Boss has used AeoniQ's yarn in four capsule collections, while Lameirinho's 'vegan silk' bed linen line was presented at Heimtextil 2025. The venture will 'benefit from the vertical integration of eucalyptus-based pulp to finished yarn,' the duo said, before later expanding to incorporate recycled feedstocks, considering inputs like cotton textiles waste and agricultural waste as well as bacterial cellulose derived from food waste. 'Altri's investment transforms AeoniQ from a market-proven innovation into a full-scale global production platform. Together, we are offering a market-ready solution to one of the planet's most polluting industries: Textiles,' Carlo Centonze, CEO of HeiQ, said. 'The joint venture brings together Altri's industrial expertise and HeiQ's innovation prowess to deliver a European-made, sustainable, high performance and plastic-free textile.' The acquisition's completion is subject to the fulfillment of closing conditions, as is standard in transactions of this nature, the strategic partners said, with expectations to wrap up the process during 2025's third quarter. Flexible carbon fiber composites company Carbitex collaborated with Hypetex Coloured Advanced Materials (CAM) on a new generation of production-ready colored composites. 'While we've explored colorization in the past, our core expertise lies in engineering flexibility. By working with Hypetex CAM, we get the best in color while focusing on continuing to evolve our technology. The request for color is a regular occurrence, but we wanted to wait until we knew we had a solution that met our quality expectations—Hypetex does that,' said Junus Khan, founder and president of Carbitex. 'OmniFlex with Hypetex colored carbon is striking and beautiful. This collaboration will expand our material offerings into compelling new product ranges.' The collaboration debuts with Carbitex's carbon fiber textile technology that helps athletes harness the high tensile strength and no-stretch characteristics of carbon fiber in a flexible and lightweight form. For the first time, Carbitex's technology is available in colorways other than traditional black, including shades of Oak Twill and Titanium Twill, among six other distinctive options. The Hypetex colored OmniFlex materials are available now, intended for integration with products in sport and lifestyle segments, with inaugural efforts in the travel and accessory categories on the horizon.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Iris Van Herpen Paris Fashion Week: Dutch designer debuts living dress
When it was not being worn, the dress was returned to its natural habitat – though even in the unnatural environment of a fashion show, the algae held their own (colour). Still, how long they will ultimately live, and what will happen to the outfit once they expire, is not exactly clear. 'No one knows!' van Herpen chortled. 'That's the beauty of it. It's very much like a human being in that sense. It needs eight hours of sleep, it needs sunlight, it needs not too much stress.' Who can't relate? The point of the living dress, van Herpen says, as with the rest of her collection, was to force a rethink of our relationship with the ocean – a theme that has been part of her work since 2017, when she immersed musicians in tanks of water for a show. To that end, this season's show opened with a performance involving lasers that danced across a gown made of what the show notes called Japanese 'air fabric.' One look that resembled a translucent ivory Slinky trailing around the body was made of Brewed Protein, a fibre from fermented plant-based materials by the Japanese biotech company Spiber; another was formed from resin-coated silk, which resembled a wave caught in mid-froth. As much as anything, however, her work, and especially the living dress, actually prompts a rethinking of our relationship with our wardrobes, and the way clothes need care in order to last. Not to mention a rethinking of the essence of couture. The Schiaparelli show included a reverse cleavage dress with a beating ruby heart. As the laboratory of fashion, couture is defined by experimentation and the sort of pie-in-the-sky imagination that is only possible when price and time have no limit. That's how you got a ruby crystal heart necklace that actually throbbed worn over a backward dress at Schiaparelli, the gown's torso – complete with breast plate – layered over the spine. It's how the team at Chanel, creating its final collection before the first show of new designer Matthieu Blazy, dreamed up the shaggy bouclé 'skins' that resembled bison pelts but were actually made from tulle and feathers, worn over the shoulders of their barbarian bourgeoisie (the best things in an otherwise lacklustre show). Loading Too often, however, couture seems as if it is preserving the know-how of the past – its embroideries, brocades and fairy tales – rather than trying to invent what's next. Van Herpen's work challenged all of that, simply by asking: What if a garment was not only constructed, but cultivated? This article originally appeared in The New York Times . Make the most of your health, relationships, fitness and nutrition with our Live Well newsletter. Get it in your inbox every Monday.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Spiber Inc. and Iris van Herpen Unite for a Visionary Collaboration at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week AW2025
YAMAGATA, Japan, July 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- 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. "Biomimicry is ever-present in Spiber's approach and that is truly similar to our own methods. Fusing the organic with the innovative, recreating nature's way of making a material, starting with a protein… Spiber has been able to translate a complex technology to meet the needs of designers and create something truly wearable, which is a rare quality. I feel Brewed Protein™ fiber brings a lightness and a softness that I am looking for, resulting in fabric that floats around the skin. It has a very attractive, organic, and natural presence which is embodied in the whole look. The Spiber team and I share the same attention to detail and texture—the sensorial qualities of the material." – Iris van Herpen Spiber's Brewed Protein™ fiber is the only man-made protein fiber to be successfully industrialized, positioning the company as a global leader in biomaterials for fashion and beyond. The material forms the foundation of the bridal look, where sheer organza is cut in gradient-sized moonshapes and heatbonded to the laser cut Brewed Protein™ fabric bonings. Hundreds of white coral petals are then stitched upwards onto a nude illusion tulle, spiralling down into a translucent twisted train. "At Spiber, we believe in the expressive power of materials—their ability to tell stories, to inspire emotion, and to redefine our relationship with nature. Working with Iris van Herpen, whose designs go beyond the physical to evoke the beauty of life's complexity, has resulted in an extraordinary manifestation of our mutual values. Our Brewed Protein™ fiber was born from the same curiosity that drives Iris's work: a desire to explore the boundaries of what is possible when we look to nature for questions, without focusing solely on answers. This collaboration reflects a vision of fashion that is both sensorial and systemic, where fabrics are not just worn, but experienced, and where innovation arises from a deep sensitivity and curiosity toward the living world. We're honored to be part of this moment, and hope it marks the beginning of a new paradigm in how we create, feel, and evolve with the materials around us." – Kazuhide Sekiyama, Spiber Co-founder and Representative Executive Officer The artisan bridal look is more than a moment on the runway—it is a statement of possibility. Both Van Herpen and Spiber believe that collaboration across disciplines is essential to addressing the complex challenges facing fashion and the environment. Their work together serves as an artistic and technological blueprint for future innovation. Looking towards the future, Spiber and Van Herpen hope that this is only the beginning. Their teams will explore new possibilities with a shared ambition to continue pushing the boundaries of material innovation and reimagining what fashion can be. Spiber Inc. Established in 2007, Spiber is a biotech venture company based in Yamagata, Japan. Dedicated to creating innovative solutions that contribute to sustainable well-being, Spiber has developed a new material solution inspired by nature's diversity and circularity: the "Brewed Protein™" material platform. By harnessing the power of precision fermentation, Spiber engineers proteins at the molecular level, resulting in versatile materials that can be tailored to specific needs. This innovative solution opens up new possibilities for sustainable and high-performance materials in various industries, including apparel, food, automotives, and more. Spiber website: Spiber is a trademark or a registered trademark of Spiber Inc. in Japan and other countries. Brewed Protein™ is a trademark or a registered trademark of Spiber Inc. in Japan and other countries. Brewed Protein™ fiber A premium, plant-based material produced using Spiber's fermentation (brewing) technology, providing a circular solution and pioneering a new category of protein fibers. Due to its plant-based ingredients and resource-efficient production process, Brewed Protein™ fiber has the potential to significantly reduce environmental and animal welfare impacts compared to traditional materials. Iris van Herpen Since its establishment in 2007 and its prestigious membership in the Fédération de la Haute Couture in 2010, the Maison of Iris van Herpen has consistently combined innovative techniques with traditional Couture craftsmanship, resulting in sensorial designs that beautifully capture the intricacy and diversity of the natural world. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Spiber Inc. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iris Van Herpen Fall 2025 Couture: Dresses Teeming With Life
Iris Van Herpen has taken her haute couture R&D to another astonishing frontier, creating a 'living look' incorporating 125 million bioluminescent algae that she said require eight hours of rest, eight hours of light — and a calm, cool environment in order to thrive. Sounds a lot like us, huh? More from WWD Cardi B Embraces Sculptural Shoulders and Fringe Pearls for Schiaparelli Fall 2025 Couture Show in Paris Dua Lipa Goes Avant-garde in Keyhole Cutout Dress for Schiaparelli's Fall 2025 Couture Show in Paris Sofia Coppola was Thinking Pink for Les Arts Décoratifs Ball 'When it's happy, it responds to the movement of the person who's wearing it,' Van Herpen told a visitor, his jaw on the floor, during a preview of her fall 2025 show, which combined light sculptures, stirring music, gossamer fabrics and choreography to pack an emotional punch akin to David Attenborough's new ocean film — but with the visual poetry unique to the Dutch designer. A million questions occur about the algae dress, such as, 'How long will it live?' 'We don't know. No one knows. It's one big pioneering process,' Van Herpen said. 'But I don't think this will be possible to deliver to a client yet. It's more of a museum piece because it really needs to be taken care of every day.' Van Herpen fished out a photo on her phone of the squishy garment housed in its steel and glass temperature-controlled chamber, mist accumulating at the bottom. It's as strangely beautiful as it is mysterious, achieved thanks to a collaboration with engineer and 'bio designer' Chris Bellamy, who found a way to keep the algae alive in a nutrient gel. Each of Van Herpen's 18 looks felt like an ecosystem unto itself: here a kinetic dress in collaboration with artist Casey Curran, undulating like some alien skeleton; there Japanese 'air' fabric suspended on wires and drifting like a jellyfish in invisible currents, or a cutting-edge 'brewed protein' material from Spiber, somehow resembling the suckers of an octopus — or a few cans of Pringles — spilled over a fishtail dress. The designer combined all that science with haute artistry, also taking inspiration from Loïe Fuller, a pioneer of modern dance, and equipping a performer with winged appendages that interacted with the laser beams of Nick Verstand in mesmerizing ways. Van Herpen called that show opener a metaphor for 'how we have drained the life out of our oceans.' Leaving no senses unengaged, she also conscripted perfumer Francis Kurkdjian to develop a bespoke fragrance dispersed like a wave during the show. Here were vaporous dresses that behaved in the atmosphere of the Élysée Montmartre music hall like normal fabric might submerged in Europe's deepest pool — Van Herpen's been there, done that for her spring 2023 couture collection — and a stiffer one that whorled upwards around a model, like egg whites caught in a twister. Van Herpen's wondrous dressmaking defies gravity, provokes deep thoughts about our planet — and lights up couture week like very, very happy algae. Launch Gallery: Iris Van Herpen Fall 2025 Couture Best of WWD Windowsen RTW Spring 2022 Louis Shengtao Chen RTW Spring 2022 Vegan Fashion Week Returns to L.A. With Nous Etudions, Vegan Tiger on the Runway
