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3D Printed Fashion: The Top Designs

Published on August 4, 2022 by Alexandrea P.

Fashion brings together several industries, whether it is clothing, cosmetics, or luxury. All sorts of products are being created to embellish and affirm a style, a look, a way of being. In the world of fashion, it is necessary to know how to stand out and how to present ever more original and innovative designs. For that reason, many brands and designers are now turning to 3D technologies, which is understandable, given the number of new options the technologies present to express creative freedom while allowing mass customization and a reduction of environmental impact. The textile industry, as you’ve probably already heard, is known to have a negative impact on our planet. 3D printing, however, presents an opportunity to mitigate these effects, by using only the material that is necessary and by producing on demand. What applications of 3D printing are available today in the fashion industry? From haute couture dresses to handbags, we’ll take a look at a few initiatives, listed in alphabetical order.

NFT Collection by Danit Peleg

Danit Peleg is the first designer in the world to have created a collection entirely using desktop 3D printers. The structure of his designs is inspired by mixing traditional textile properties with new technologies, which is how this lace-like texture was created. According to the designer, 3D printing allows digital fashion to become physical, which reduces the limits of creativity. The garments are printed layer by layer with a flexible filament using a desktop 3D printer to create a three-dimensional structure that fits the body shape. Danit Peleg believes that in the near future, we will have more wearable materials made by additive manufacturing to choose from.

Iris van Herpen

Dutch designer Iris van Herpen was one of the first to use 3D printing in the fashion industry. She already managed to impress everyone at this year’s Met Gala with her extraordinary 3D printed creations which were worn by Teyana Taylor, Winnie Harlow, and Fredrik Robertsson. At this year’s Fashion Week in Paris, she also unveiled a 3D-printed haute couture dress that was developed in a collaboration between the designer and Belgian ice cream brand Magnum. The dress was made entirely from a vegan organic material based on cocoa bean shells. Iris van Herpen’s work is an intersection of fashion, design, technology, and science. In her designs, she brings together nature, fashion, and technology by using unconventional materials and technologies and combining them with traditional sewing techniques.

Galerie Dior

Additive manufacturing also found its way into the field of haute couture, as the example of the reproduced fashion pieces at  Galerie Dior in Paris shows. On display at the Boutique Dior located in the world-famous Avenue Montaigne, interested visitors can find several hundreds of 3D-printed replicas of former Dior garments, handbags, or even shoes. The manufacturing process took place thanks to the collaboration between the ALIGHIERI agency and LA FERME 3D ©. Together, they invested over 100,000 hours of printing and 10,000 hours of post-processing in the reproduction of the fashion elements. The printing was done by more than 30 3D printers, which were put to work for a total of six months, day and night, to complete the iconic Dior project. The material used for the production is entirely bio-based.

Kornit Digital and Its 3D Printed Knitwear

The high amount of society’s consumption of fast fashion was the turning point for Ronen Samuel, CEO of Kornit Digital, a sustainable fashion brand that uses additive manufacturing to produce knitwear. For its sustainable and waste-reducing fashion, Ronen uses direct-to-yarn printing, which is printing directly onto all types of textiles. In this case, the company uses MAX technology, which applies ink layer by layer. The result is a garment that looks like it was knitted traditionally. Ronen Samuel’s designs have already been presented at the Tel Aviv Fashion Show.

A 3D Printed Skeletal Mask for High Fashion

A great example of how 3D printing can be used to create a unique piece that can even give an outfit the missing touch which ultimately completes it is this skeletal mask created by designer Kevin Freitas Conlin. The exotic-looking accessory, that was worn by drag queen Aquaria on the tenth season of the popular show Ru Paul’s Drag Race, helped her win in the show’s final. The bone-like structure of the mask, which was customized to Aquaria’s face, was reportedly 3D-printed in laser-sintered nylon by American AM company Shapeways. This was the first time that 3D printing technologies were used on the show, and it inspired designers in later seasons of Ru Paul’s Drag Race to experiment with it as well and create other unique pieces, such as the fashionable exoskeleton worn by contestant A’whora during season 12.

Julia Daviy’s 3D Printed Skirt

Julia Daviy started creating 3D printed fashion back in 2017 and has since released a variety of amazing 3D printed clothing collections. With a special focus on sustainability, the California-based fashion designer, who has quickly become a pioneer of sustainable 3D-printed fashion, designed and produced many examples of fashion, jewelry, and home décor. One interesting example of her work is The Organic Skirt. This particular piece is the central element of a 3D-printed collection that was released in 2019. In the project titled the After Forever Collection, all items of clothing were 3D-printed by using large-format 3D printers. The Organic Skirt was the first digital 3D-printed piece of clothing available on the U.S. market and is digitally customizable in over 1,000 variants.

VIP TIE

VIP TIE is an Italian company that is famous for 3D printing ties. The goal of the company is to offer fashionable accessories that are as personalized as possible in order to satisfy the needs and desires of the customers. VIP TIE combines both luxury and innovative high-tech design. The creation process of just one tie can include an intricate mix of several complementary procedures and materials: craftsmanship, embroidery, 3D printing, exotic leather, mother-of-pearl, carbon fiber, silver, gold, and silver plated solid. Apart from highly customizable products, another advantage of VIP TIE is that more than 80% of the materials used are 100% environmentally friendly.

Patronace

Patronace is a sports brand created by award-winning designer Bastian Müller. The Munich-based brand offers 3D printed activewear for those who lead a fast-paced lifestyle. The clothes are made for everyday urban mobility, no matter if you commute by skateboard, scooter, or e-bike. For the production of the clothes, the brand uses a lightweight and flexible textile printing technology called GRDXKN, which transforms substrates into smart textiles. This unique material, with which Patronace manufactures these garments includes integrated protection and insulation, and has a special kind of grip thanks to the textile layer that controls moisture, is breathable, water repellent, abrasion resistant, and shock absorbing. The fashion created by the company with its intelligent textile allows you to feel both, safe and stylish at the same time.

3D Printed Leather Which Could Revolutionize the Fashion Industry

When it comes to materials in fashion, one that will never go out of style is leather. For jackets, boots and everything in-between, leather is a cornerstone in the industry. However, ethical use of the material can be difficult. Real leather is often touted as far superior to its alternatives, but many still would prefer leather to be animal free. Thankfully, researchers from Tufts University might have a solution. Using silk cocoons from the silkworm Bobmyx mori and 3D printing on a custom-built pneumatic extrusion 3D printer, the researchers were able to produce an environmentally friendly, animal-free leather alternative that not only resembles real leather but also has the same mechanical properties. Though as of now they have only made a wallet out of the material, the find could have a major impact on the fashion industry at large in the near future.

Stratasys and The SSYS 2Y22 Reflection Collection

Recently, well-known manufacturer Stratasys introduced its new commitment to the 3D printed fashion world with the launch of its J850 TechStyle 3D printer. Following that, the American-Israeli company has continued to demonstrate the capabilities of additive manufacturing in this field. During Milan Design Fashion Week, it unveiled its SSYS 2Y22 Reflection collection, consisting of high-end accessories and apparel, which were all 3D printed. This was possible thanks to the collaboration with 7 other groups of designers that, together with the technology of its J850 TechStyle solution, allowed the development of an innovative line of products that aim to reflect the social impact observed in recent years. In the video below you can see the use of 3D printing to create these fashion garments, specifically from the hand of Ganit Goldstein, one of the designers who participated in the SSYS 2Y22 Reflection:

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3D-printed clothes: why haven't manufacturers made them mass-produced yet?

ThreeASFOUR showcased their 3D printed clothing collection for the first time at a fashion show at the Jewish Museum in New York. The dresses on the models were patterned and looked ephemeral, like the robes of robotic angels. One was woven from white, angular bubbles, which gave the impression that the girl had just taken a bubble bath.

But the girl who showed this dress to the world could not sit down, otherwise the dress would have broken. “The model wearing the dress was very unhappy,” said Bradley Rothenberg, a 3D architect who collaborates with threeASFOUR founders Gabi Asfor, Angela Donhauser and Adi Gil.

ThreeASFOUR dress at the fashion show at the Jewish Museum.

It happened in 2013, when threeASFOUR began to realize that in order to achieve the goal, they would have to take a step back. They did not even think that they would create such an impractical piece of clothing. On the contrary, they wanted to create an outfit worthy of a superhero. They dreamed that the fabric they printed would become invulnerable to bullets and fire, retain heat and protect the wearer from stress. They dreamed that people would start buying their clothes as soon as they hit stores.

But time has passed. With the Silicon Valley elite building personal bunkers, refugees pouring across the border into Canada, and Margaret Atwood back in vogue, threeASFOUR's vision is as close to reality as an apocalyptic dystopia. But if everyone has access to the stocks left on Doomsday, becoming a superhero is still unrealistic.

And the reason is quite simple. Thanks to thousands of years of experience, tailored clothes are more practical and comfortable than those printed by a 3D printer. But that doesn't seem to be stopping threeASFOUR and other designers.

“In the fashion world, you can control the patterns and structure of a dress to get the look you want,” Rothenberg says. “The problem is that right now it’s just a possibility. So I think Gaby Asfor is the most interesting person in the industry. We need people who will push the boundaries, striving to show the new.”

The vision of Gabi Asfor is evident in his work. He became interested in 3D printing in 2009 and has been experimenting with the internal structure of fabrics ever since.

Traditional fabric has two dimensions: the threads are arranged horizontally, vertically and diagonally in a certain way to create a weave. Asfor, who has a degree in mechanical engineering and architecture from the University of Maryland, worked with Donhauser and Gil to come up with a three-dimensional weave that was planned to be laser-cut. The desire to give fabric a third dimension led them to 3D printing.

“The most innovative recent invention in the industry is the four-way stretch fabric,” says Asfor. “But ordinary fabric can only stretch in the X and Y planes. 3D printing will allow the material to stretch in the Z plane as well. ” He believes that such a fabric will be better breathable, less restrict movement, and will not have folds.

ThreeASFOUR was interested in 3D printing, which led them to collaborate with Materialise, a 3D printed model company, and Rothenberg, who came up with 3D printed wings for the 2013 Victoria's Secret fashion show.

“When we first started, Gabi kept asking, “Can you print fabric? What material will be needed for this?” Rotenberg says. It turned out that this would not be easy.

Pangolin dress from the Biomimicry collection. Source: Backchannel

The main problem is that the materials used for 3D printing are stiffer than regular fabric. ThreeASFOUR experimented with the structures of various materials, trying to add elasticity to them, but any printed model came out very fragile.

But new materials have arrived, and ThreeASFOUR has teamed up with Stratasys and Travis Fitch to design dresses like Pangolin for their new fall 2016 collection, which they call Biomimicry. It took 500 hours to print (not including assembly) Pangolin! The dress, named after a scaly mammal, was reminiscent of dark armor (Björk appeared in it during a tour in Australia last year). To create the "scales", the designers used an algorithm that simulates cell division, thus obtaining an intertwining pattern.

On the ground floor of the ThreeASFOUR studio, there are employees who work with the most ordinary sewing machines. The dress itself is located on the next floor. Up close, the Pangolin bib, detached from the other parts of the dress, is somewhat reminiscent of a bicycle tire that has been cut to look like fish scales (it even wiggles like a fish tail). Such a deflection was not possible a few years earlier.

Asphor hands me a piece of another dress, a Harmonograph modeled after a sound wave. It was made from a rubber mesh that can expand and contract like a pillow-top mattress. The bottom of the dress shrinks when a person sits down and returns to shape when they stand up.

Harmonograph dress by ThreeASFOUR. Source: Instagram

With this flexibility, 3D wearers can now sit comfortably, although comfort is far from ideal. “Matter resembles artificial skin. It is not very pleasant to the touch and, in addition, sticks to the skin, ”says Rotenberg.

The idea of ​​making printed clothes gained popularity at the beginning of the 21st century, but developed rather slowly.

Few people know this better than Aaron Rowley, founder of Electroloom, a 3D printed clothing startup. At first, many well-known brands were interested in his work, but gradually, one by one, they left. “There was an idea that people could print tools at home,” says Rowley, referring to the days when there was a lot of hype around 3D printing. It was believed that clothes could also be printed, since wardrobe items are used every day and need to be updated regularly.

But progress has not gone far. “The process of creating fabric is fundamentally different [from 3D printing],” says Rowley.

“Textiles are an advanced technology,” says Scott Hudson, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University who has worked with Disney on soft print materials. Calling the textile industry a technology, he was not exaggerating: some experts believe that the loom is an early version of the computer. In the middle of the 18th century, Joseph Marie Jacquard figured out how to save a fabric pattern on a punched card, which made it possible to set the machine to work and automate the process.

3D printing technology is not that polished yet. “You have to find a compromise between stiffness and strength,” says Hudson. 3D printers create an object by layering, and this process is very different from how fibers are turned into fabric.

Rowley took fabric raw materials and created blends that resemble existing fabrics. However, the 3D printer has created something that looks like a "chaotic web". It took a long time before they got a soft, stretchy, foldable and lightweight material that at first glance resembled fabric. But even the final version was not suitable: the material was torn as soon as it was pulled harder.

“Fibers that are physically connected, as in the case of 3D printing, remain stationary, while woven fibers move smoothly relative to each other,” Rowley explained. Electroloom shut down last October.

Until the material issue is resolved, the printed garment will look more like a work of art than a piece of clothing. A year ago, threeASFOUR dresses were featured at the Met Gala-sponsored Costume Institute show. The Manus x Machina show in 2016 also emphasized the role of technology in the fashion world: stars and celebrities dressed in silver at the show, and Zayn Malik appeared in a suit with robot arms.

Oscillation Dress by ThreeASFOUR. Source: Instagram

This year, threeASFOUR has introduced another novelty: a white and blue lattice dress, pictured above, it hugs a mannequin in their studio. The dress consists of 30 pieces, which are first printed and then carefully assembled.

“We are looking for new technologies,” says Asfor. “I believe that in the near future we will have a unique opportunity to move in this direction.”

At the same time, the quality of other garments (such as jewelry or sportswear) printed on a 3D printer is much higher. Nike and Adidas use 3D printing to create shoe padding and soles, which are usually made from foam. NASA is developing a project similar to Pangolin - a printed "chain mail" designed to protect astronauts from the impacts in space.

Maybe not only astronauts. Although T-shirts and pants are still made in the traditional way, protective armor will soon be printed. It will come in handy in case there is a revolution, aliens attack or you need to flee abroad.

Source.

Related materials:

“Print me food!” – what printing technologies of the 21st century are capable of

Smart home in Russian: how 3D printing helped create a cool gadget

A service for creating models for 3D printing inside virtual reality is launched

Ford is testing 3D printing of car parts

Where to go to learn and work with 3D printing?

Designers from Nervous System 3D printed a translucent dress / Sudo Null IT News0001

In recent years, fashion designers have often experimented with 3D technologies, creating very effective, but not very practical devices, like an evening dress for burlesque star Dita Von Teese. Not so long ago, the next designers from the American company Nervous System presented a whole online service for modeling clothes, and the other day they demonstrated its capabilities by printing a light and very playful dress. The thing turned out to be so airy and enticing that the New York Museum of Modern Art has already become interested in it, requesting accompanying videos and design software along with the prototype itself.

The guys at Nervous System call their technology “4D printing” for some reason, even though the dress was created using the well-known selective laser sintering (SLS) method, which uses powdered nylon as a material. Since the Nervous System has not yet acquired its own production, they used the services of Shapeways, a former division of Philips, to print a test sample. By the way, the already mentioned dress of Dita von Teese was also printed there.

According to the developers, the full production cycle took about 48 hours. The 3D model of the dress consists of 2279 triangles of different sizes, connected to each other using 3316 microscopic loops. The resulting design did not require assembly: the creators only needed to remove the folded dress from the powder form, thoroughly clean it, straighten it and carefully work out all the loops. “On the spot” a beautiful assistant dressed him up, organizing a spectacular photo session surrounded by 3d printers and mysterious employees in respirators and white coats.

Unlike traditional fabrics, the material of the dress is not uniform in its structure. Its different parts differ in the degree of rigidity, flexibility, the size of the fragments and holes, as well as in the pattern that the nylon triangles form. To create virtual clothing models, Nervous System developed a special Kinematics application. In it, anyone can create a virtual model of a dress, skirt or T-shirt from scratch, fitting it to a specific figure. To do this, you need to make a scan of the body of the future owner, which will be used in the application as a virtual mannequin. Kinematics Cloth allows you to select a specific model of a dress, adjust its length, type of cut, pattern, and fit it to a virtual mannequin with millimeter accuracy.

Another tool included in the Kinematics package is the Kinematics Fold. It allows you to fold a full-size model of a dress into a compact 3D prototype that fits the working volume of most SLS printers. The calculation of this transformation is carried out in the open physics engine Open Dynamics Engine (ODE). As a result, Kinematics Fold reduces the volume of the dress by 85%, turning it into a mysterious artifact, which is then so funny to dig out of the depths of nylon powder.

However, technology is technology, and the commercial goal of the project is quite transparent. As you might guess, all these enticing photos of half-naked dancers and videos with long-legged beauties are just a competent promotional campaign demonstrating the capabilities of the Nervous System and, mainly, advertising the Kinematics Cloth application. The team hopes that now their service will gain wide popularity and are preparing for the influx of customers in a hurry to make their ladies happy at Christmas with a translucent 3D outfit.

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