Renowned Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen has unveiled a striking new collaboration with historic champagne house Maison Perrier-Jouët, bridging the worlds of high fashion, art, and viticulture. For this ambitious partnership, van Herpen looked directly to the verdant vineyards of Champagne, where she recorded ambient environmental sounds and explored their visual patterns through cymatics—a scientific technique that makes sound visible by demonstrating how vibrations create intricate geometric patterns in materials such as water, sand, or powder.
The Dutch designer has harnessed these unique visual representations of sound to create a series of breathtaking sculptural works made from silk and recycled gold, alongside bespoke designs for champagne bottles. The project deeply reflects her ongoing fascination with the organic forms, hidden rhythms, and microscopic structures found throughout the natural world. At the same time, the collaboration bridges van Herpen’s avant-garde sensibilities with the rich heritage of the Art Nouveau tradition, which has historically defined the visual identity and aesthetic philosophy of Maison Perrier-Jouët.
"The world is not only visual but vibrational—woven together by invisible forces that connect all living things," says van Herpen, summarizing the conceptual foundation that drives her latest creative endeavor.
Art Nouveau Influences and the Belle Époque 1988 Sculpture
The creative partnership between Maison Perrier-Jouët and Iris van Herpen officially took root in December 2025, when the celebrated fashion designer was named the inaugural recipient of the prestigious Perrier-Jouët Design for Nature Award. Both entities share a profound, foundational inspiration drawn from the natural world, a shared ethos that mirrors Perrier-Jouët’s long-standing historical ties to the Art Nouveau movement and its celebration of flowing, organic lines.
To initiate the project, van Herpen traveled to the champagne house’s esteemed vineyards located in Ambonnay and Cramant. There, she captured the natural acoustic environment, translating the acoustic data through cymatics. This technique, which transforms invisible sound vibrations into tangible, observable patterns, served as the primary blueprint for the organic silhouettes developed across the entire collection.
Van Herpen has long been fascinated by how physical vibrations can generate complex patterns that remain entirely hidden to the naked eye. This core exploration runs consistently through her broader body of work, where she frequently merges scientific inquiry with natural phenomena to illuminate forms that might otherwise go completely unnoticed.
For her latest creation, titled Symphonic Bloom, van Herpen translates these scientific and artistic studies into a magnificent sculptural piece that delicately envelops a rare jeroboam of Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque 1988. Constructed meticulously from silk and recycled 22-carat gold, the sculpture cascades upward from the slender neck of the champagne bottle. Its intricate, sweeping contours are directly informed by her rigorous cymatics research.
The physical design of the piece also emerged from extensive conversations between the designer and Sévérine Frerson, the cellar master of Maison Perrier-Jouët. Together, they discussed the intricate ways in which the flavors, aromas, and structural complexity of champagne develop, evolve, and mature over time. The dynamic, upward movement of the sculpture subtly evokes the flowing, ethereal costumes of early modern dancer Loïe Fuller, as well as an exquisite Art Nouveau lamp by designer Raoul Larche, which is housed within the champagne estate’s historic collection at Maison Belle Époque in Épernay.
Symphonic Life and the Belle Époque 2018 Champagne Edition
Building upon the momentum of her initial creation, van Herpen expands the collaborative narrative with Symphonic Life, a strictly limited edition comprising just ten individual pieces. Each work in this series features a coveted magnum of Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque 1999. Fabricated from recycled 22-carat gold, these designs further develop the undulating, organic shapes first established in Symphonic Bloom, wrapping gracefully around the contours of the historic bottles.
In tandem with these sculptural editions, van Herpen worked closely with cellar master Sévérine Frerson to develop a specialized, limited release of Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque 2018, featuring a completely redesigned bottle and a matching presentation gift box. The visual concept for the packaging draws direct inspiration from the rich, varied textures found across raw metal, natural wood, delicate silk, and lush velvet.
Working hand-in-hand with the designer, Frerson carefully adjusted the dosage of the champagne to accentuate the cuvée’s vibrant floral notes and distinct mouthfeel, ensuring that the liquid within mirrored the tactile sophistication of the exterior design.
"The floral signature of Perrier-Jouët is born from a deep connection with nature and a continual search for elegance and nuance," notes Frerson. "Through our dialogue with Iris van Herpen, we explored texture as a shared language, from the tactile qualities of her work to the layered sensations that define an exceptional champagne."
The resulting collection made its global public debut at Tokyo Gendai in September 2026. Following its premiere in Japan, the works were showcased during Maison Perrier-Jouët’s exclusive Banquet of Nature event held at The Peninsula Paris on October 21st, ahead of a scheduled presentation at Design Miami in December 2026.
