3D Printed Dress Oscillates with Energy at NY Fashion Week

At a gallery near Bleecker Street in New York City, one of the top names in fashion recently took center stage for a milestone runway event – largely made possible through the power of 3D printing. NY Fashion Week is often associated with big name celebrities and stunning haute couture, but this time one of the biggest stories of the week was also the Stratasys-powered 3D printed dress created by threeASFOUR.

Entitled ‘Oscillation,’ the dazzling piece was part dress, part striking artwork, and was the centerpiece of threeASFOUR’s ‘Quantum Vibrations’ collection for Spring/Summer 2017. The piece epitomizes the transformative nature of 3D printed fashion, pushing the boundaries of creative innovation. Designers Gabi Asfour, Angela Donhauser and Adi Gil, in collaboration with Travis Fitch, built their wearable masterpiece to leverage the Stratasys Objet Connex3 3D Printer, largely based on its potential to 3D print in vibrant colors, materials and textures simultaneously.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqz9MzX4Sw8

Most impressively, threeASFOUR built ‘Oscillation’ from more than 30 individual 3D printed parts drawn from nearly 300 design files. Gil notes the dress draws inspiration from source energies and vibrations, explored in a series of graphic 2D patterns created by Fitch. The bio-inspired design colors – which correspond to changes in shape and size – are made possible by Stratasys’ PolyJet 3D printing technology. PolyJet’s functionality opens the door for creation of multi-dimensional textural surfaces in rich color, giving the impression they’re oscillating alongside with the model’s movements.

3D Printed ‘Oscillation’ dress produced using Stratasys’ unique multi-color, multi-material 3D printing technology.

“3D printing is transformative for designers aiming to take complex designs and realize them in 3D wearables. In the case of ‘Oscillation,’ 3D printing with Stratasys PolyJet 3D printing technology has enabled us to visualize patterns in the 3D form as they truly are – complex, interwoven circles of energy, transforming in shape, color and flexibility as they radiate around the body,” explained Gil. “The stellar parallax of the patterns, the way in which they transform as the viewing angle changes, is only possible through 3D printing.”
During the creative process, each 3D print was split into nine layers of less than one millimeter in thickness to achieve the appropriate graded coloration. These materials of varying thickness were actually placed on the model’s body individually to give the impression of patterns transforming in shape, color and flexibility – changing appearance based on viewing angle. Most impressively, the Stratasys Connex3 helped to build the most precise geometries while managing to maintain the dress’ flexibility and wearability.

The 3D Printed ‘Oscillation’ dress is comprised of 30 individual parts.

This is the third time Stratasys has partnered with threeASFOUR and follows the designers’ recent ‘Pangolin’ and ‘Harmonograph’ 3D printed dresses in the 2016 Fall/Winter collection presented at New York Fashion Week earlier this year. Largely sparked by Connex3’s powerful multi-material, multi-color functionality, these pieces stole the spotlight and were the impetus for threeASFOUR to further push their boundaries with Stratasys 3D printing solutions.

Download this white paper to learn more about 3D printing in education institutions, design schools and fashion programs: