Objet… no… hang on… Stratasys looked on as the latest groundbreaking creations using its 3D printers took to the catwalk in Paris today.
Surrounded by fashionistas and people with strange, angular haircuts, they watched Dutch designer Iris van Herpen’s eleven-piece collection for Paris Fashion Week, including an elaborate 3D printed skirt and cape created in collaboration with multi-tasking wonder Neri Oxman from MIT’s Media Lab on the runway.
The pieces were built using the Stratasys Objet Connex machine [just rolls off the tongue that name] that allows multi-material printing, therefor allowing for increased stretch in parts, or rigidness to a highly accurate level.
“The ability to vary softness and elasticity inspired us to design a “second skin” for the body acting as armor-in-motion; in this way we were able to design not only the garment’s form but also its motion,” ooh-la-la’d Oxman. “The incredible possibilities afforded by these new technologies allowed us to reinterpret the tradition of couture as “tech-couture” where delicate hand-made embroidery and needlework is replaced by code.”
An intricate dress was also designed in collaboration with Austrian architect Julia Koerner, currently lecturer at UCLA Los Angeles, and 3D printed by Materialise, marking the second piece created together with Koerner and the ninth with Materialise.
