The First Totally 3-D Printed Dress

You’ve probably heard of something called 3-D printing or additive manufacturing — the process of making a 3D solid object from a printer.  To create a print, a fancy printing machine reads the design from a file and lays down successive layers of liquid, powder, or sheet material to build the model from a series of cross sections. These layers, which correspond to the virtual cross sections from the Computer Aided Design model are joined together or automatically fused to create the final shape. (wiki).

The Jetsons-esque product is not as unattainable as it sounds. In fact, much like the calculator, the mobile phone and the personal computer, the machines that perform such awesomeness are now relatively cheap for people like you and me to own themselves. No matter what piques your interest, there is something the 3D printer can make in the realms of design and technology, from jewelry, to footwear, engineering to architecture, and in this particular case, fashion.

Paper mag reports: a dress has been made using a 3D printer; computers are one step closer to taking over the world! Stagewear designer Michael Schmidt and model Dita Von Teese debuted the 3D printed gown on Monday at Manhattan’s Ace Hotel, and the result appears both high-tech and cool — a much more wearable take on the partially 3D printed dresses Iris Van Herpen put out for her last collection. The dress is made of powdered nylon, a flexible, fabric-like substance that’s most often used for architectural modeling  (and — who knew? — is comfy enough to wear). The dress was then polished and lacquered black and covered with 12,000 black Swarovski crystals.

Seriously, we are mesmerized. It may be the fact that Dita Von Teese is a total babe, but we’re trying to look past that and focus on the technology and design of this printed piece of futuristic art. It’s nothing short of magical, but of course, all magic has a reasonably deduced rationale. It comes from a mix of great design and the streamlined technology that helps makes those ideas a reality. We anticipate seeing more of this 3D-ness in forthcoming collections. For now, gaze in wonder at the above image.