Nov 10, 2016 | By Alec
When you think of 3D printed fashion, the first things that come to mind are usually outrageously futuristic outfits that look fantastic but seem very impractical to wear. Just look at our list of top 15 favorite 3D printed dresses, and you quickly get the idea. But as Israeli student Ganit Goldstein from the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem is proving with her latest project, you don’t have to look towards the future to 3D print fashion. Taking her work in the completely opposite direction, she recreated a lace bodice from a nineteenth century costume using 3D printing.
This gorgeous outfit was created by Goldstein for a second year project, as part of her jewelry and fashion studies at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. As part of the assignment, she had to recreate a historical outfit and provide her own contemporary interpretation.
This assignment quickly brought her onto the path of lace, which has been a truly revolutionary fabric since appearing in Venice in the early sixteenth century. “Lace was soon to be known as “punto in aria” (stitches in the air). Lace allows designs to break free from geometric forms – a boundary imposed by working with fabric. Lace was all hand made from the best materials available at the time and was made especially for women’s costumes, to emphasize the wearer’s status and wealth,” she explains. “I wanted my contemporary design to be a thematic opposite of the historical dress. I decided to replace the Sisyphean manual lacework with 3D printing technology.”
All the designs were developed by Goldstein herself, using a special algorithm to generate 3D lacework designs – with this digital approach ensuring that no hands were used during the design and 3D printing process. The synthetic lace was subsequently 3D printed with the help of Professor Shlomo Magdassi’s laboratory at the Hebrew University’s Casali Institute for Applied Chemistry and the 3D Functional and Printing Center at the Hebrew University Nanocenter. Solidworks software and a MakerBot 3D printer were used.
This piece of 3D printed art is made from ABS filament, 3D printed in hollow – and therefore flexible – shapes. “My research revolved around discovering a new way of making lace. I 3D printed lace-like shapes that have the opposite characteristics from the traditional lace,” the designer says. “The changing of the shapes is endless- changing only numbers in the original algorithm to make a beautiful variety of shapes.”
Fortunately, Goldstein was able to rely on the expertise of Dr. Michael Layani and PhD candidate Ido Coperstein during the 3D printing process. “Simply put, we are the chemicals men,” Dr. Layani said of the project. “Our research team and lab is responsible for creating and developing materials and substances which do not occur naturally. We then look where we can apply those substances in the real world through 3D printing.”
While normally focused on cosmetic and pharmaceutical 3D printing projects, the center was more than happy to help. “Ganit came to us with her algorithm, and then together we figured out what kind of material was best for her needs and its real world applications,” Dr. Layani recalled. “We then aided the process, from the very creation of the nanoparticles used for the material to the final stage of printing out the completed object.”
The final result is synthetic, sure – but also very practical. Flexible to wear, it can also withstand high temperatures and can be combined with other pieces of clothing. In this case, the bottom skirt is also inspired by the original costume’s pleated skirt. It is also produced much quicker than actual lace outfits, and Goldstein believes that it thus illustrates where the future of clothing and jewelry is heading. “This project illustrates the tension between the traditional craft and contemporary technology,” Goldstein said. “In a few years’ time, it will be cheaper to print clothing and jewelry; when that happens, will the art of handcraft disappear?”
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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