Wearable 3D Printed Dress at Paris Fashion Week – Iris van Herpen Show

On Monday we experienced another first for multi-material 3D printing. For the first time ever, a multi-material 3D printed cape and skirt were featured on the Paris catwalk.

Dutch designer van Herpen’s eleven-piece collection featured two 3D printed ensembles, including an elaborate skirt and cape created in collaboration with artist, architect, designer and professor Neri Oxman from MIT’s* Media Lab, and 3D printed by Stratasys. An intricate dress was also designed in collaboration with Austrian architect Julia Koerner, currently lecturer at UCLA Los Angeles and 3D printed by Materialise.

For a complete update on the show, here’s our very own Daniel Dikovsky, Material R&D Team Leader, who attended the show. Here he gives us his own personal account and some unique back-stage photos from the event:

“For me, being in Paris immediately reminds me of where modern art and design came from. But this time, as a 3D printing professional, I looked upon things with a slightly different take – the combination of art and new materials enabled by 3D printing technology.

Stratasys Objet Connex 3D Printed Cape

I believe that in the future we will see more artists using 3D printing platforms, simply because it allows them to achieve a new level of freedom in what they do. They will not have to rely on the limited selection of existing crafting processes and materials, but will be able to design their own palettes and combinations, in a way similar to a painter mixing colors on his palette. In this way I believe we will see very complex designs opening up – and many of these being created by a single artist.”

The 3D printed skirt and cape were produced using Stratasys’ unique Objet Connex multi-material 3D printing technology, which allows a variety of material properties to be printed in a single build. 

Watch this space for more exciting stuff to come from the Paris Fashion show!

Stratasys 3D printed dress in close-up

This post is also available in: French