Renowned Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen has unveiled a striking new multidisciplinary collaboration with historic champagne house Maison Perrier-Jouët, bridging the worlds of high-fashion sculpture, oenology, and the natural sciences. For this ambitious project, van Herpen journeyed deep into the heart of the champagne house’s vineyards to capture the hidden audio frequencies of the natural landscape. By utilizing cymatics—a specialized scientific technique that renders sound waves visible by translating vibrations into geometric patterns within physical materials—she has transformed the silent rhythms of nature into tangible, breathtaking works of art.
The resulting collection, which spans bespoke bottle designs, custom gift boxes, and intricate sculptural creations fashioned from silk and recycled precious metals, explores the symbiotic relationship between sound, structure, and organic life. "The world is not only visual but vibrational—woven together by invisible forces that connect all living things," says van Herpen, summing up the philosophical core that drives the entire endeavor.
Bridging Art Nouveau Heritage and Modern Scientific Inquiry
The partnership between Maison Perrier-Jouët and Iris van Herpen officially commenced in December 2025, when the visionary designer was named the inaugural recipient of the prestigious Perrier-Jouët Design for Nature Award. The alliance feels entirely organic, as both the champagne house and the designer share a profound, foundational reverence for the natural world. For Maison Perrier-Jouët, this reverence is deeply rooted in its historical identity as a champion of the Art Nouveau movement, an artistic philosophy defined by its embrace of flowing, organic lines, botanical motifs, and a harmonious dialogue with the environment.
To begin the creative process for the collaboration, van Herpen traveled to the champagne house’s prestigious vineyards located in Ambonnay and Cramant, France. There, she recorded the ambient environmental sounds of the terroir. Back in the studio, she explored these sonic signatures through cymatics, observing how sound vibrations organize water, sand, and powder into intricate, microscopic geometries.
Van Herpen has long been fascinated by phenomena that exist just beyond the threshold of human perception, frequently merging scientific innovation with traditional craftsmanship to uncover forms that might otherwise go unnoticed. For this partnership, those invisible cymatic patterns served as the foundational blueprint, dictating the sweeping, fluid architecture of the physical pieces that followed.
Symphonic Bloom: Sculpting Time and Rare Vintage
The most prominent physical manifestation of this research is Symphonic Bloom, a sculptural masterpiece designed to cradle and elevate a rare jeroboam of Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque 1988. Rising dynamically from the slender neck of the historic bottle, the sculpture is meticulously crafted from delicate silk and recycled 22-carat gold. Its sweeping, petal-like components mimic the organic symmetries uncovered during van Herpen’s cymatic investigations into the vineyard’s acoustic environment.
The development of the sculpture involved a deeply collaborative dialogue between van Herpen and Maison Perrier-Jouët Cellar Master Séverine Frerson. Together, they discussed the complex, evolving ways in which the flavors of exceptional champagne develop over time. The upward, unfurling movement of the gold and silk structure was heavily influenced by these conversations about aging and maturation. Furthermore, the design pays homage to cultural history, drawing visual cues from the flowing, kinetic costumes of pioneering modern dancer Loïe Fuller, as well as an exquisite Art Nouveau lamp by designer Raoul Larche, housed within the champagne house’s private collection at Maison Belle Époque in Épernay.
Symphonic Life and the Limited-Edition Belle Époque 2018 Cuvée
Building upon the monumental forms established in Symphonic Bloom, van Herpen expanded the narrative with Symphonic Life, a limited collection consisting of ten exclusive pieces. Each work in this series features a magnum of Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque 1999, encased in intricate, enveloping structures crafted from recycled 22-carat gold that echo the organic rhythms of the natural world.
In tandem with these sculptural works, van Herpen and Cellar Master Séverine Frerson collaborated closely on a special, dedicated edition of Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque 2018, encompassing a completely redesigned bottle and accompanying presentation gift box. The visual design of the packaging draws rich tactile inspiration from a diverse palette of natural textures, including brushed metal, warm wood, fine silk, and rich velvet.
Beyond aesthetics, the collaboration extended directly into the liquid itself. Working alongside van Herpen, Frerson adjusted the champagne’s dosage to accentuate the cuvée’s distinct floral notes and enhance its layered, velvety texture on the palate.
"The floral signature of Perrier-Jouët is born from a deep connection with nature and a continual search for elegance and nuance," notes Frerson, reflecting on the cross-disciplinary partnership. "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 culmination of this extensive collaboration was first revealed to international audiences at Tokyo Gendai in September 2026. The collection was subsequently showcased during Maison Perrier-Jouët’s exclusive Banquet of Nature event at The Peninsula Paris on October 21st, before traveling onward to captivate audiences and collectors at Design Miami in December 2026.
