Designer Jessica Rosenkrantz writes, “I made this 3D printed dress and the MoMA just acquired it. This video, filmed at Shapeways factory showing the printing and depowdering of the dress (there’s also this one, documenting the dress’s sounds and movements).
Nervous System’s custom-fit dress is an intricately patterned structure of 2,279 unique triangular panels interconnected by 3,316 hinges, all 3D printed as a single piece in nylon. While each component is rigid, in aggregate, they behave as a continuous fabric allowing the dress to flexibly conform and fluidly flow in response to body movement. Unlike traditional fabric, this textile is not uniform; it varies in rigidity, drape, flex, porosity and pattern through space. The entire piece is customizable, from fit and style to flexibility and pattern, with a web-based design app.
Bodies are 3-dimensional but clothing is traditionally made from flat material that is cut and painstakingly pieced together. In contrast, Kinematics garments are created in 3D, directly from body scans and require absolutely no assembly. We employ a smart folding strategy to compress Kinematics garments into a smaller form for efficient fabrication. By folding the garments prior to printing them, we can make complex structures larger than a 3D printer that unfold into their intended shape automatically.
The Museum of Modern Art has added the dress and the software that generated it to their permanent collection.
(Thanks, Jessica)