Fashion Meets Future In 2014 3D Printshow

By Joelle Renstrom | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Josh Harker Headdress

I’m a huge fan of the Dalek dress, the insect women, and the Star Wars fashions that debuted at New York’s Fashion Week, but photos from New York City’s 2014 3D Printshow are blowing my mind.

lionel dean glowing headdress
lionel dean glowing headdress

3-D printing is popular enough and certainly visually stimulating enough to warrant its own fashion show, catwalk and all. The show had everything from head pieces to swimsuits. It even had live events, including the Purple Knights gymnastics team that performed wearing individually customized 3D-printed outfits designed from scans of their bodies. Instead of featuring individual pieces, the show featured collections by select artists.

Purple Knights
Purple Knights

Joshua Harker made the incredible headpiece in the photo above, as well as the skulls below. His work features intricate tangles that resemble the designs of henna tattoos.

Joshua Harker skulls

Nervous System, a collaboration between two artists who just happen to live and work where I do in Somerville, MA, creates art meant to resemble the intersection of art, science, and technology. They’re inspired by patterns found in nature and write computer programs based on those patterns. Tobias Klein explores the union of art, design, and architecture, playing with interactive installations in urban environments while challenging viewers’ sense of visual perception.

nervous system
nervous system

All of the designers do that, really. If you didn’t know that these shapes were 3D-printed, you might assume they were sculptures, carvings, or art made by aliens. While some of them seem more traditional in approach, they have an otherworldly feel about them while somehow managing to retain a sense of the natural.

Tobias Klein
Tobias Klein

This seems like less of a fashion show and more of a dynamic art show, featuring all kinds of work both wearable and not, almost like a high-tech museum moving down a runway. If this is the future of fashion, I might have to start dressing better.

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