3D printing for the design aspect
Additive manufacturing is interesting for fashion as it is allowing to work more easily on fashion designs and to create amazing things for the fashion industry such as garments, ornaments and meshes.
This technology is really giving a lot of freedom to the designers in terms of geometry. It is, for example, possible to create intricate designs for various projects inside the fashion industry. From shoes and accessories to 3D printed dresses, the fashion industry starts to embrace the full potential of 3D printing and to develop interesting objects.
Some of the garments developed thanks to the 3D printing technology would have been too complex and expensive to create with another manufacturing method.
New considerations for the fashion industry
Sustainable manufacturing and eco-friendly products
There is obviously an evolution in the way that we are thinking about fashion and clothes manufacturing. New aspects are now taken into account and now, the reasons why designers are choosing this 3D printing are changing: it is becoming important to use 3D printing for sustainable and eco-friendly purposes.
For instance, textiles are part of the waste problem around the world, that is why a lot of elements of the manufacturing process need to be rethought in order to be more eco-friendly. Using 3D printing allows to reduce the waste, thanks to this technique, you only need to use the amount of material that is needed create your project.
It is also a way to use some recycled materials for the manufacturing process. Adidas created a 3D printed midsole for one of its sneakers, made with recycled plastic found in the ocean. Creating new materials and using plastic in a more responsible way are new reasons to use 3D printing for fashion companies, and even for big brands such as Adidas.
3D printing comfortable clothes
The use of 3D printing to create clothes is evolving. It first has been used to create extremely complex and impressive pieces. The use of 3D printing in this sector was a way to push the boundaries of the fashion world to create outstanding projects, that were visually impressive.
Now some designers are more interested in using 3D printing to develop collections of regular clothes, using additive manufacturing as a traditional manufacturing method. They are not only using 3D printing for the design benefits but as an advantageous manufacturing method to create customizable and comfortable clothes. Additive manufacturing is a great way for all the industries to improve their manufacturing process. It is allowing their to work on their prototypes with faster and cheaper methods, but also to produce customizable products in the end. These two elements are quite important in the fashion industry.
Indeed, 3D printing could totally help to create clothes adapted to the movement of all the bodies! 3D printing is not only a manufacturing method for haute couture creations anymore.
What are the best projects?
3D printing regular clothes
The idea of Julia Daviy is to use 3D printing to create biodegradable fashion, believing that we can change the way we produce clothes!
Her collection included 3D printed dresses and tops. Most of the time, the 3D printed clothes made by designers are not easy to wear. But it is not the case with the clothes 3D printed by Julia Daviy. She is really thinking about 3D printing as a new method to create garments without wasting a lot of textiles, and avoid the mass-production aspect.
Multicolor 3D printing for garments
This dress is a piece made by the american designer Travis Fitch, with 30 different sections. It has been printed with a colorful multi-material. The material is flexible in order to respond to the movements of the body. The 3D printing process is a good way to give life to objects with really complex designs and to make them wearable as traditional garments.
The use of color on this project is quite unique, 3D printing projects in the fashion world are often monochrome, and are not as colorful. This technique offers new possibilities as multicolor 3D printing is not often used in these kinds of projects.
3D print knits
inistry of supply developed a 3D printed knit blazer, a sustainable way to create garments that will last longer! The 3D printing process and the work on the 3D designs that they are creating are allowing to make pieces more adapted to the body and to its movements.
Their goal is to develop an agile supply-chain and create on-demand products that are more comfortable and durable. Their 3D printing technology is an eco-friendly method to create knits, and they are noticing a reduction of 35% regarding material waste.
New generation of 3D printed clothes collections
Danit Peleg is a designer who decided to create a fashion collection that she entirely 3D printed by herself. By doing that, she shows that 3D printers are great tools, allowing to rethink the manufacturing process of the fashion industry. The collection took her 2 000 hours to print completely.
Her goal? To create comfortable clothes that she could wear herself. Once again, we see the will of designers to create wearable 3D printed clothes.
3D printing, still useful to give life to outstanding designs
Alexis Walsh is a talented designer who created an impressive dress 3D printed using Selective Laser Sintering. The dress has 400 tiles assembled by hand. Here, 3D printing has been used to develop the design of the dress. It took at least six months to the designer to develop this impressive garment using 3D printing.
The 3D printed comfortable dress
We were talking previously about more comfortable clothes. Dresses made by designers are not what we can call comfortable, as it is not their primary goal. But do you know about the Kinematic dress? By 3D scanning her model, Jessica Rosenkrantz created a dress perfectly fitting her body.
By using this innovative manufacturing technique, the designer wanted to show a new approach of manufacturing for her fashion collection. Moreover, 3D printing is perfect to make several iterations for this kind of dresses, to be sure that they respond correctly to the movements of the model.
3D printed fashion for men
We can see that most of these creations are dresses or tops, intended for women. But what about men?
There is actually the 3D printed tie developed by Viptie 3D. This company is more focused on the mass customization aspect of the 3D printing technology. They want to join lxury and high tech to create ties and bowties, as unique products for their customers.
Evolution of 3D printed clothes: What is the future of fashion?
Some companies are developing new techniques and new 3D printing materials such as Ministry of Supply who used a new method to create knit garments. We can notice that some extraordinary 3D printed designs made for fashion shows are still present as the 3D printing technology is still really convenient to manufacture these unique pieces. But 3D printing tends to be more and more use to create clothes that anybody could wear. Indeed, now that we saw that the 3D printing technology is able to create intricate geometries for garments, comfort is becoming the key to new 3D printed fashion projects.
There is also a growth regarding the use of different 3D printing materials and techniques. In the future, metal 3D printing could be implemented to create some ornaments, but also laser cutting techniques! There are a lot of benefits and possibilities for designers who want to approach the laser cutting and 3D printing industry.
We can also see that the eco-friendly aspects offered by 3D printing are becoming quite important, as for instance, recycled plastic and biodegradable materials can be used to 3D print some fashion parts. Soon, it could even be possible to use natural materials.
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