Iris van Herpen collaborates with Prof. Neri Oxman, Julia Koerner, Stratasys and Materialise for latest fashion collection
Minneapolis, MN; Rehovot, Israel; Leuven, Belgium – January 21, 2013 – Stratasys Ltd.
(NASDAQ: SSYS), a leading manufacturer of 3D printers and production
systems for prototyping and manufacturing and Materialise, a
Belgian-based pioneer in Additive Manufacturing software and solutions,
today announced the unveiling of 3D printing collaborations on the
catwalks of Paris Fashion Week as part of Iris van Herpen’s Haute
Couture show, ‘VOLTAGE’.
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,
marking the second piece created together with Koerner and the ninth
with Materialise.
Stratasys 3D Printed Cape & Skirt with Objet Connex Multi-material 3D Printed Technology
Stratasys 3D Printed Cape & Skirt with Objet Connex Multi-material 3D Printed Technology
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. This allowed both
hard and soft materials to be incorporated within the design, crucial to
the movement and texture of the piece. “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,” explains 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.”
Van Herpen adds, “I
feel it’s important that fashion can be about much more than
consumerism, but also about new beginnings and self-expression, so my
work very much comes from abstract ideas and using new techniques, not
the re-invention of old ideas. I find the process of 3D printing
fascinating because I believe it will only be a matter of time before we
see the clothing we wear today produced with this technology, and it’s
because it’s such a different way of manufacturing, adding
layer-by-layer, it will be a great source of inspiration for new ideas.”
According to van Herpen, motivation to collaborate with Oxman came after seeing her ‘Imaginary Beings : Mythologies of the Not Yet’ collection–
3D printed by Stratasys’ matchless Objet Connex multi-material 3D
printing technology – that featured in the Multiversités Créatives
exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, last spring. Oxman explains
that the joint venture is very much an extension of the series:
“This
project has taken ‘Imaginary Beings’ to ‘Wearable Beings’, myths that
one can wear. The original collection includes 18 Stratasys 3D printed
prototypes for the human body inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' Book of
Imaginary Beings. They are human augmentations inspired by nature; but
not all wearable. For Iris’ collection at Paris Fashion Week it was
important to take the series to the next level, thinking not only about
form and materials, but also about movement and wearability. This was a
new challenge for me and for my colleagues – Prof. W. Craig Carter
(Department of Materials Science & Engineering) and Keren Oxman. It
inspired us to design algorithms that could map physical movement and
material behaviour to geometrical form and morphological variation in a
seamless and continuous wearable surface.”
Van Herpen,
Koerner and Materialise have continued testing the limits of 3D printing
with this 3D printed dress, proving once again that normal rules don’t
apply when fashion and high technology combine. In last season’s ‘Hybrid
Holism’ collection, they first introduced the use of Materialise’s
Mammoth Stereolithography machines for a stunning semi-transparent dress
that one spectator compared to liquid honey. For this latest
collection, ready for an even greater challenge, an experimental new
material was put to use in the creation of a flexible, soft dress of
stunning complexity. The piece’s intricate lace-like texture was created
with precision by lasers (in a process known as Laser Sintering) and
would have been impossible to realise any other way.
Materialise 3D Printed Dress
Materialise 3D Printed Dress
Julia Koerner explains,
“My collaboration with Materialise for the 3D printed dress for Iris
van Herpen's Haute Couture Show 'Voltage' 2013 reveals a highly complex,
parametrically generated, geometrical structure. The architectural
structure aims to superimpose multiple layers of thin woven lines which
animate the body in an organic way. Exploiting computational boundaries
in combination with emergent technology selective laser sintering, of a
new flexible material, lead to enticing and enigmatic effects within
fashion design. New possibilities arise such as eliminating seams and
cuts where they are usually placed in couture.”
Following the Paris Fashion Show, the skirt and cape will be exhibited at MIT’s Media Lab.
source: materialise.com
