3D printed dress moma

MoMA acquires first "4D-printed" dress

Dan Howarth | 9 December 2014 10 comments

News: New York's MoMA has acquired a "4D-printed" dress that automatically changes shape, and the technology used to create it, a month after the museum added five DIY electronics products to its permanent collection.

Design studio Nervous System's Kinematics project creates complex, adjustable garments by 3D-printing interlocking components connected with articulated joints.

MoMA acquires DIY electronics products to reflect technology's "significance" for design

"We refer to Kinematics as a 4D printing system because it generates compressed objects that unfold into their intended shape after printing," creative director Jessica Rosenkrantz told Dezeen.

"The garments that we've designed can only expand to their full size after being removed from the printer and they do so automatically, no assembly is required. "

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) announced today that it has acquired the first dress produced using the technique, along with the app software that customises the design and a concept video demonstrating the idea.

The dress was produced by 3D printing company Shapeways in New York earlier this year as a single folded piece, then unfurled into the final shape. This allows the garment to be made more efficiently on the compact machines.

"The Kinematics Dress represents a new approach to manufacturing which tightly integrates design, simulation, and digital fabrication to create complex, customised products," said Rosenkrantz and co-founder Jesse Louis-Rosenberg.

3D-scanning technology allows the design to be custom-fit to the wearer's body by manipulating the tessellated mesh file before printing.

The patterned structure is formed of 2,279 unique triangular panels interconnected by 3,316 hinges, all 3D printed together in nylon using selective laser sintering (SLS).

"While each component is rigid, in aggregate, they behave as a continuous fabric allowing the dress to flexibly conform and fluidly flow in response to body movement," said Nervous System.

A smartphone and tablet app has also been created to allow the customisation of patterns, style and flexibility, using a re-meshing technique that adjusts the file according to various parameters. The way the dress will drape over the body is shown on-screen as the design changes.

The garment, the app and the concept video have all been added to the museum's permanent collection by senior curator Paola Antonelli and colleague Paul Galloway.

Last month, Antonelli announced that MoMA has collected a set of DIY electronics products, including a kit that teaches users how to build and programme their own games console.

Nervous System began developing the Kinematics concept in 2012, as part of a brief set by mobile phone manufacturer Motorola to create customisable 3D-printed products.

The technique was first used to generate and print a line of jewellery last year.

Another 3D-printed dress with articulated parts was created for Dita Von Teese by designer Francis Bitonti, who printed the garment in parts before assembling it.

Other designers using 3D printing to create wearable pieces include Neri Oxman, who recently launched "skins" designed to facilitate synthetic biological processes, and Iris van Herpen, who has introduced the technology to the world of haute-couture fashion through collaborations with Oxman and others over a number of seasons.

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Nervous System Creates Kinematics Dress 3D Printed by Shapeways & Acquired by MoMA

Today we are excited to unveil an amazing dress designed by Nervous System and 3D printed at our New York City factory. Using Kinematics – Nervous System’s 4D printing system that creates complex, foldable forms composed of modules – designers Jessica Rosenkrantz and Jesse Louis-Rosenberg created a completely wearable dress that prints in one single folded piece. It is made of thousands of panels connected by hinge joints and fluidly folds and conforms to the body as it is worn. Both the dress and Kinematics software have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art for their permanent collection.

We’ve been working closely with Nervous System since 2009. They have been instrumental in showing the world the potential of 3D printing with their beautiful designs, and in helping us push the limits of our production capabilities and design guidelines. This dress definitely pushes the limits of what’s possible today. Given the file size and complexity, our 3D printing engineers worked with Jessica and Jesse to plan the build and closely check for printability before it went into production. The dress, while folded, is still a relatively large print and required a longer build time than our normal production process (44 hours!)…so we really only had one shot.

Our CEO Pete likes to say, shoot for the stars and you’ll reach the moon. In this case, we definitely reached the stars. Congrats to Jessica and Jesse. You guys have thrown down the gauntlet in what’s possible with 3D printing.

Kinematics Dress in motion. Image courtesy of Nervous System

We spoke with Jessica to hear more about the inspiration behind this dress and what she thinks the future of 3D printed fashion is…

How did the Kinematics Dress come about?

We first prototyped the idea for Kinematics on our Makerbot as a way to print something flat that could become three dimensional and wearable. We loved the materiality and movement of the hinged triangular components. Our first thought was that it would be amazing to produce something larger, like an entire dress, with this system on our little desktop printer. We quickly realized that making an entire dress out of tons unique 8” panels that would have to be flattened for printing and then assembled was crazy. There would be more work in the design process to panelize the dress and lots of manual labor to put it together. So we flipped the idea on its head. Instead of using the flexibility of the design to make something three dimensional that is produced flat, we simulate the movement in the computer to take something very large and 3D and make it flatter and more compact, so it can be 3D printed in one piece.

What was your inspiration?

This project really started from the limitations and opportunities of 3D printing. We were thinking about how we could harness the ability of 3D printers to make interlocking parts and very complex structures to create customized wearables.

In general, all our work is inspired by how patterns and forms emerge in nature. We take a systems approach to design. We don’t craft individual objects; instead, we create architectures for growing, sculpting or generating whole families of designs. For this project, we were more interested in designing a process and material than a garment.

In terms of other garments, we were definitely influenced by Janne Kyttanen and Jiri Evenhuis’s 3D printed chainmail dress. It set the standard for 3D printed garments not only by being the first but also by being one of the only ones that appears wearable and textile-like in its construction. If we were going to create a dress it was certainly going to a durable, comfortable, wearable piece. We were also inspired by the work of Issey Miyake, which often explores folding and structure in fashion.

An x-ray view rendering showing the hinges which structure a Kinematics design. Image courtesy of Nervous System

What are the benefits of the Kinematics approach versus traditional modeling?

Kinematics represents a new approach to manufacturing, which tightly integrates design, simulation, and digital fabrication to create complex, customized products. Our approach is completely different from traditional modeling and CAD software. The whole system is built up around the logic of a mechanism, in this case a hinge, which has been optimized for 3D printing and whose behavior we can simulate. Users interact with kinematics at a high level through an online design tool that lets them sculpt clothing shapes and “paint on” density and styles. Meanwhile, in the background the system is taking care of generating and connecting together all the geometry with our hinge mechanism. At the end of the design process, we have a 3D-printable piece of clothing made of thousands of panels interconnected by hinges. Rather than just ending up with big heavy file containing a bunch of “dumb” geometry, we end up with a smart structure that we understand as rigid panels connected by hinges. Because we understand the behavior of the geometry, we can use simulation to compress it down for efficient 3D printing.

Kinematics Dress. Image courtesy of Nervous System

What do you see for the future of 3D printing in clothing and fabrics?

We are particularly intrigued by how 3D printing applies to clothing in two areas: new meta-fabrics and customization.

Additive manufacturing has to ability to create very complex structures. In the world of clothing and fabrics, this is particularly intriguing because we are already talking about constructed materials. Fabrics produced from fibers that are aggregated and connected to create cloth with certain properties. For instance, knit cotton has stretch and woven cotton does not. Typically these material properties are constant throughout a whole piece of fabric. With 3D printing, we can start to create really weird fabric-like assemblages or mashups. We can print a textiles with gradations of material properties like stretch, flex, warmth, color, etc.

3D printing also favors the production of hyper-customized, one of a kind goods. We will see more apps like Kinematics that create custom-fit clothing and accessories from body data.

How does this fit into your broader collection?

Nervous System’s goal is to use computation and new fabrication techniques to make products that push the boundaries of what is possible. Most of our work starts with an inspiration from nature that eventually is translated into some sort of digitally fabricated, customized product. In this project, we actually started on the other end, being inspired by the technology itself and ultimately creating our own material system and form generating process.

Kinematics Dress. Image courtesy of Nervous System

How did MoMA get involved?

We met Paula Antonelli, the Senior Curator of Architecture & Design of the Museum of Modern Art, at an event this year where were demoing an early version of Kinematics Cloth app and displaying our Kinematics Bodice. She expressed interest in acquiring a Kinematics Dress for the MoMA collection… the only problem was we hadn’t made one yet. There were actually a number of design and technological hurdles we had to overcome before we could make a full dress. Even up to the last moment, just days before they needed it, we weren’t sure we would be able to deliver their final piece.

What’s next for Kinematics?

There are a lot of possible directions for Kinematics including new products, improved software and incorporating different mechanisms and structures. We’re doing more material experiments to explore how different types of connections can lead to different fabric behaviors. There are also still many improvements we can make to our folding algorithm to increase speed, accuracy and generality for other shapes. Another avenue we’d like to explore is creating a locking joint that would allow us to print a folded object that would snap into a rigid configuration when unfolded.

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Kvitka

Dress with print: relevant options 2022

Every year, a printed dress strikes the imagination of fashionistas, and 2022 is no exception. This year, designers have offered many unique patterns, but classic prints have not been forgotten either. Among them are a cage, a strip and small and large peas.

Long dresses with print

Every girl should have such a model as a long dress with a floral print, as it can be called universal. In addition, it is romantic and very feminine. Do you want to feel like a real woman? Wear a floor-length floral dress and you will definitely look like a queen at any occasion.

It is interesting that any girl, both tall and short, can wear a maxi dress with a print. All you have to do is pick the right shoes with heels. However, the fabric of a printed dress should be light and flowy, such as thin cotton or chiffon. Thanks to this material, you will get a very delicate and fragile image.

Fashionable dresses of medium length

Printed midi dress looks just as impressive. This medium length is always popular and attracts women due to its versatility. A floral print midi dress can be used not only for various festive events, but also for daily visits to the office. The style of a midi print dress can be called universal due to the fact that it is not as frilly as long models of printed dresses, but at the same time, it does not have a touch of vulgarity like short printed dresses.

Almost any fabric will fit in a midi size, depending on where exactly you are going to wear this printed dress. For example, for a holiday or for evening walks around the city, light and flowing chiffon dresses with a print are suitable. For the office, a knitted tight dress with a print will be an ideal option - in it you will feel light and comfortable. A printed silk dress is perfect for festive occasions. If you are going to visit a restaurant or a banquet, give preference to a velvet dress with a print.

Printed short dress

Looking for an option for a cocktail party, party or just for summer outings? Then a short dress with a floral print is the best fit for you. And here you will find an unprecedented variety. For example, it can be a cropped straight dress with a print, or perhaps you will like a puffy dress with a print.

In order for the image to look complete, it is important to choose the right and interesting combination with shoes and accessories. She can wear anything with a short dress, from ballet flats and sandals to regular sneakers, and pumps are a classic of the genre.

Printed sheath dresses are especially interesting, perfect for a cocktail, while printed shirt dresses are a great option for walking around the city. However, do not forget to choose shoes and accessories to match the dress!

Flower print dress

The trendy floral print dress is one of the hottest trends in 2022. And it has been relevant for more than a year now. The fashion for such models appeared back in the seventies, when women began to be attracted to everything natural. It is interesting that in 2022, summer dresses with a print in the form of flowers will be fashionable not of just one variety, but of a whole family of flowers at once. For example, it can be roses and peonies or cornflowers or daisies.

Models with flowers of unexpected colors or shapes will also seem original, which, by the way, can be supplemented with nets, appliqués and other 3-D effects.

These dresses will be relevant at any event. It can be either a long evening dress with a floral print or a simple sundress made of daisies.

Pretty flower-printed dresses go well with a trendy cardigan or jacket. But you just need to make sure that the addition to the dress is as simple as possible in style and, preferably, plain. If you are wearing a bright dress, pay attention to shoes and accessories in calmer colors.

When choosing a style, give preference to the model that best suits your figure. For example, a dress with a large print is undesirable for full people, as it visually makes the figure even heavier and more powerful. If the figure is far from ideal, try to avoid models with a pattern in the form of many small roses. Choose a style based on your figure, and not on the current fashion.

Leopard print dress

This dress used to be considered too provocative. Now it is generally accepted that such a combination of colors is most suitable for determined and purposeful girls - real predators. However, in reality this is not the case. Stylists manage to create many feminine and romantic images with such models.

How to choose accessories for such unusual “animal” outfits? There is nothing complicated here. Accessories and shoes in sand or black look perfect with such outfits. For example, you can buy beige pumps, which are available in almost every store.

It must be understood that such specific colors will not be appropriate everywhere. For example, they will look perfect at some party, but, alas, they will not work for a business meeting, no matter how strict the outfit looks.

Large print dress

A dress with a large print will certainly attract attention, because everyone is used to small print, and large print is quite rare. However, there is a slight nuance here. So, it is undesirable to buy models with a large pattern for girls who have a magnificent figure, because a large print visually makes it heavier.

If the owner of a magnificent figure still decides to bet on a large print, then the pattern should be located so that it can emphasize the dignity of a woman. In addition, a loose dress with a print looks interesting on full ladies.

Original printed dress

Recently, a wrap dress with Tie-Dye print, which literally translates as “tie and dye”, has become popular. Despite the fact that such outfits appeared back in the sixties, the rainbow print is still relevant, and especially in recent years.

Models with abstraction are no less relevant - for example, on some dresses you can see whole paintings, as if descended from the canvases of famous artists. No less interesting are the patterns that create the effect of an optical illusion.

Blending elements, contrasting colors and 3D graphics make the dress seem to be in constant motion.

Geographical patterns look very impressive, inviting you to go on a trip around the world. Such models are in the collections of almost all eminent fashion designers. Printing typography never ceases to please us - various inscriptions and texts are still in fashion.

And, of course, dresses with a geometric print look very interesting. Such models are suitable for both a party and an office - you just need to choose the right length and not too catchy colors.

Printed colorful dresses

Gone are the days when only little black mono dresses were in fashion. Choose a black floral print dress and it will not look as gloomy as the usual one-color model. By the way, many designers like to experiment with this particular color, since black is combined with almost any shade of drawings, be it red roses or graphic combinations. But, of course, yellow, red or white is ideally combined with black.

In 2022, as in 2022, the blue color will be very relevant. It only seems that the blue color does not go well with anything, but in fact, a well-chosen blue dress with a contrasting print can look very attractive. A blue print dress will look no less impressive. This model is suitable for both everyday attire and for evening visits to events.

For those who love delicate and pastel colors, a white print dress is perfect. It will make you look younger, as since ancient times white has been associated with innocence and purity. White can easily be used both at a party and as an everyday outfit, as it makes its owner brighter and younger.

A red dress or a dress with a red print will suit courageous girls who are not afraid to stand out from the crowd. Thanks to a model with such a shade, you will look as bright as possible and, accordingly, will be able to attract attention to yourself.

Printed sheath dress

This elegant cut is suitable for almost any event. Its highlight lies in the fact that it is able to emphasize the girl's waist and make her visually as thin as possible.

Depending on which print you choose, it will be clear where to wear it. Got a sheath dress with a pattern of geometric shapes? Then you can safely go to the office. Is this a floral dress? You can wear it for an evening walk, in a cafe or on a date.

Knitted dress with print

Do you want to treat yourself to something not only fashionable, but also extremely practical? Then get a dress made of knitwear with a print, because such material seems to have been created so that you can experiment on it. In addition, many girls are also attracted by the fact that a model made of this material can be worn both in warm and cool seasons.

Evening dresses with prints

Of course, when reminded of evening dresses, floor-length models immediately come to mind, but midi or even mini dresses may well be suitable for going out.

Long, large patterns look interesting as prints, which immediately attract attention. The classic options are, of course, flowers and a cage. You can combine such an outfit with a plain cape or bolero.

A dress with a deep-colored velvet print looks spectacular. The classic version is blue or purple. A silk dress with a print looks no less attractive, but light shades are usually chosen for this material.

Other spectacular prints

Recently, more and more fans appear in dresses with drawings in the pop art style. Pick the right model for you and you won't be able to go unnoticed! By the way, you can soften your bold choice a little if you buy accessories and shoes in neutral tones.

The star print, which looks especially impressive on a shirt dress, has become no less relevant.

3D printed dress moma

MoMA acquires first "4D-printed" dress

MoMA acquires DIY electronics products to reflect technology's "significance" for design

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Nervous System Creates Kinematics Dress 3D Printed by Shapeways & Acquired by MoMA

Dresses with 3D print in the category "Home and Garden"

003

Dress with print: relevant options 2022

Long dresses with print

Fashionable dresses of medium length

Printed short dress

Flower print dress

Leopard print dress

Large print dress

Original printed dress

Printed colorful dresses

Printed sheath dress

Knitted dress with print

Evening dresses with prints

Other spectacular prints

Learn more