Inspired by our sister site Your Next Shoes’ post on 3D-printed shoes, here’s an article on a 3D-printed dress.
If you think it’s a dress with three-dimensional prints on it, you’re not alone; that’s what we thought it was at first, too. Just looking at pictures of Dita Von Teese modeling it doesn’t help much with explaining the concept either because it just looks like a sculpted dress.
Dita Von Teese models the first-ever 3D-printed dress featuring over 12,000 black Swarovski crystals
This 3D-printed dress, created by designer Michael Schmidt and architect Francis Bitonti, is a “world’s first,” and we know for something to be called that, it’s definitely got to be something more awesome.
3D-printed dress made of 17 individually printed pieces with 3,000 articulated joints
So, if it’s not a dress with three-dimensional prints or a sculpted dress, what exactly is it?
Think of it this way: it’s a dress that came out of a printer. Yes, exactly how you would print out a document, except it’s in 3D.
A closeup of the dress’ hinges, all 3D-printed
If you can spare 4 minutes of your time, check out this video clip of how a 3D printer works. It shows a wrench being printed in 3D, complete with moving parts. The amazing part about it is that the completely functioning wrench came out of the printer like that, with absolutely no assembly required.
Apply that to the 3D-printed dress, with its 17 printed pieces and over 3,000 moving joints, and you can just imagine how much of a larger scale it is compared to the wrench.
It’s amazing what technology can do now, isn’t it? Okay, so maybe the powdery substance that acts as the paper and the binding component that acts as the ink don’t compare to silk, cotton, or leather. But imagine designing a dress on your computer, printing it out, and actually being able to wear it. So futuristic, it’s scary.
The 3D-printed dress’ hinged mesh design inspired by the 13th-century theorist Fibonacci’s golden ratio theory
Images supplied by WENN