The 3-D Future Of Fashion Is Now

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Yooooooo, hold the presses, guys! We knew this day was coming. 3D-printing technology has finally forced its way into the realm of fashion and much to our surprise (and probably everyone else's ever), it looks fucking spectacular. The printed dresses were debuted at Paris Fashion Week as part of Iris van Herpen's F/W 13 "Voltage" collection. The pieces were a joint collaboration between Herpen, 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys and Materialise, a software company who specializes in additive manufacturing (a fancy term for 3D printing basically). What's interesting is the pieces feature both hard and soft materials, which means that this shit could possibly, one day, open up the process to other sectors in fashion, like, oh, I don't know, menswear. BOOM.

Co-designer Neri Oxman says, "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." I mean, can you imagine the type of unfathomable, next level insanity designers like Rick Owens and Junya could cook up? I can't even think about it too hard because visualizing this in my head is already giving me an aneurysm. The future is looking extremely multi-dimensional out here and if the technology can prove consistent across the board, we're all for it.

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