Dita Von Teese unveiled the exciting style possibilities the future holds donning the world’s first fully articulated 3D printed dress at Ace Hotel. The impressive creation was made possible through the joint effort of designer Michael Schmidt and architect Francis Bitonti and might mark a new direction in fashion bringing fun new twists to the traditional dress making process. The new dress took approximately three months to be produced and it was especially made to fit Dita’s body. Amazingly interesting news about the intricate process behind the new Dita Von Teese 3D printed dress were revealed.
The first 3D printed dress, inspired by Fibbonaci was created from hardened powdered nylon which allows movement and was designed on Michael Schmidt’s iPad, believe it or not. The designer established the 17 parts and 3,000 moving parts of the dress via Skype. The next part of the process involved working with the 3D-printing design studio Shapeways which printed all the parts. From then on, the new dress was “tailored” to be as sexy as it is innovative. The dress was lacquered black and no less than 13,000 black crystals were added to make the new dress truly luxurious.
The dress, which had a bold neckline, was perfectly suitable for the Burlesque star, being designed to reflect the star’s personality: “The dress was not meant to be a futuristic sci-fi vision or anything, it was made to be an extension of her persona rendered through these futuristic means. It’s still in keeping with her old-world glamor”, Schmidt said.
Architect Francis Bitonti highlighted the fact attempting to do the same dress by hand would have been prohibitively expensive if not impossible to do as this level of detail and the amazing precision are best achieved by using the machine. The dress is surprisingly light given the complexity of the dress, weighing only 11.5 pounds. How does the star feel in the new dress?” When people ask if it’s comfortable I say, ‘Well, I like exaggerated shapes so the corseting is nice and tight.’ The only thing I was super aware of was my heel getting stuck in the hem, but that didn’t happen,” she stated. Fibonnaci would definitely be proud seeing his mathematical formulas for beauty being the inspiration behind such an incredible creation!
Shapeways designer Duann Scott emphasized the possibilities the new creations could bring: “There’s potential for 3-D printing to change the fashion market, if we can push the process a little faster and introduce new material. It’s sort of a way for us to move manufacturing into clothing. And then once we have the machines better suited to doing clothing, we can do custom fits. It’s very very possible to go into a change room, get a 3-D scan, and get a garment printed exactly to your fit. Traditionally, all garments are either a weave or a stitch. And with 3-D printing, we can … introduce something completely different. So we can grow designs rather than just using something that’s centuries-old technology. It’s a whole way to move forward in fashion and clothing and textiles.”
Though the first 3D printed dress will be showcased first at Swarovsky and then in museums, no one but Dita Von Teese will have the honor of wearing the spectacular dress.
See also:
Alexander McQueen Fall 2020 Collection
Photos: michaelschmidtstudios.com
