You Could Soon Be Downloading That LBD To Your 3D Printer

written by Global Glam March 15, 2017

Forget Shopping: You’ll Instead Be Downloading That LBD To Your 3D Printer. An Exclusive With Danit Peleg, The First Fashion Designer To Design And 3D Print An Entire Ready-To-Wear Fashion Collection At Home.

By Suzanne Dooley

3D Printed “LIBERTE” Jacket by Danit Peleg

If You Can Print It, You Can Wear It.

Who hasn’t waited in line to purchase off-the-rack clothes and wished that you could easily custom-tailor those clothing items: You know, slightly adjust the waistline? Let down/take up that too short/too long hemline? Make that ill-fitted dress fit you in the right places?

What if you could design couture clothes from home and forget shopping in stores altogether? Instead, you could easily download that summer skirt while getting a manicure and pedicure. Or download that custom-tailored LBD while taking a beauty nap. Well, 3D printing is a technology now at the fashion forefront that makes printing clothes and accessories at home, not only feasible but probable, in the not-so-distant future.

3D Printed Dress

#3D Printing, Customization and the Future of Fashion.

So far, much of the 3D printed styles that have come down the catwalk have been conceptual and artistic in nature, and not actual wearable garments. Could you don Iris van Herpen to meet your in-laws? Wear Alexander McQueen to Sunday brunch? 3D printed fashion has typically not been designed for day-to-day wear and has not been comfortable-chic. That is, until Israeli fashion designer, Danit Peleg, arrived on the fashion scene. Peleg rethought those 3D printed conceptual creations on the runway and turned them into ready-to-wear swanky style, thereby making print-to-wear the new couture.

Design by Iris van Herpen, Dutch Fashion-Forward Designer Who Creates 3D Printed Dresses

Danit Peleg is the first fashion designer to print an entire 3D fashion collection at home from her 3D printer. She not only created a collection of wearable clothes inspired by Eugène Delacroix’s painting, Liberty Leading the People, but has also fostered technological advancement in the making and wearing of contemporary fashion: eventually, you will be able to digitally customize and print your clothing from the comforts of your own home. In the future, it appears that adjusting a plunging neckline, shortening or lengthening a hemline or repositioning an appliqué, will be as effortless and easy as it is to book and print a plane ticket. And to ensure that your 3D printed ensemble will be a svelte fit, the free app, Netello, will still be available to assist you in scanning your figure to get precise body measurements, prior to printing your highly personalized 3D dress.

Danit Peleg

_{Fast Fun Facts About Danit Peleg, The First Fashion Designer To Design And 3D Print An Entire Ready-To-Wear Fashion Collection At Home:
Age/ Millennial: 28
Residence(s): Tel Aviv
What gets you in a creative mood: I think I’m always in a creative mood. I always do something.
Your Go-To Apps: Instagram, Soundcloud, Nexar}_{Secret Vice: I am addicted to board games.}_{Haute Spot(s): The beach in Tel- Aviv.}_{Don’t Leave Home Without: My notebook.}_{Role Models: My Fiancee; he taught me to dream big.}

Is FilaFlex To Be The New Cashmere?

In her first 3D printed collection, Danit Peleg utilized a printing material called FilaFlex, a flexible material that is elastic and stretches and contracts as needed. It’s also soft to the touch, durable and dishwasher safe. Peleg has stated that “[her] collection is 1 year old and it is still in really great shape.” In creating her first collection, Peleg used the printer WitBox 2 to print swaths of fabric that she then glued together with a strong superglue; her designs were pre-measured, and so there was no need to cut any fabric. Using FilaFlex and the Witbox printer, Peleg was able to print her red “LIBERTE” jacket and eventually the more elaborate lace-like textiles (similar to cloth) to complete her 100% 3D printed fashion collection, which included 3D printed platform shoes worn by the models.

To 3D Print or Not To 3D Print.

It’s all about convenience, right? Yet, most of the 3D printed collections paraded on fashion runways are created with multi-material 3D printers that aren’t accessible to most end users. It took 2000 hours for Peleg to print her never-before-done collection (nearly 17 days to print/assemble each garment), which is as many hours as haute couture. Nevertheless, with technology advancing as fast as ever, and printers printing faster each year, the time, effort and cost of 3D printing will eventually be significantly reduced. ”I can [now] create a dress in just 100 hours,” stated Peleg. ”Next year, we will probably be able to print a dress in 50 hours.” And so on and so forth. Hopefully, a night’s sleep or two will eventually be all the time required to print a new dress.

And there are environmental benefits too. Peleg told Global Glam that “[w]ith my process on making clothes, there will be less waste, and the materials I use are recyclable so if I’m over one of my dresses, I can recycle [it] and make a new filament.” Playing dress-up will never be as much fun -and environmentally friendly- as it is in 3D!

Living Fashion In 3D.

What is also revolutionary about 3D printed clothes is the idea that your clothes will be more personally expressive. You will likely be able to individually select the images, logos or designs that you want to wear. Creativity, coupled with a new-found fashion freedom of expression, will allow you to print and literally wear your heart on your sleeve, if you so choose. Off-the-rack may eventually become fashion roadkill!

Peleg is feeling excited about the future and she should be. “In the future I plan to keep exploring 3D printing and fashion,” said Peleg. “I would love to solve the challenge of mass production and 3D printing. I think we will see more and more of 3D printed fashion, but it will look a lot different than today.” And pundits would most likely agree: companies are surely musing over the idea of one day being able to download their products into people’s living rooms. And Peleg believes “that technology will help democratize fashion and give designers more independence in the creation process,” which could lead to a 21st century fashion renaissance. According to Peleg, “[t]he only limitation is your imagination, [and] so for young designers and creative people, there is a world of opportunities right now.”

3D Printed Dress by Danit Peleg

_{More Fast Fun Facts About Danit Peleg:}

^{Best Career Advice You Were Ever Given: My father always told that me those who don’t take risks, don’t drink champagne.}^{Favorite Designer: Olivier Rousteing from BALMAIN, I think he is a genius who makes unique and trendy textiles, which are extremely fine and desirable.
Favorite Printer: Witbox 2 for life!
Favorite material(s): FilaFlex by Recreus.
Best Personal Triumph: Giving a TED Talk.
Describe your professional experience in a tweet (with hashtags): 3D printed fashion for everyone. #3dprinting #fashion #Ilovetechnology #whorunstheworld}

And there is a world of opportunity for Peleg herself. Last year, Peleg used her 3D printing technique to design and print a dress for Amy Purdy, a double-leg amputee who performed a samba solo in the Paralympics Opening Ceremony. Purdy wore one of the dresses from Peleg’s second 3D printed, all-nude-colored fashion collection, inspired by Botticelli’s painting, The Birth of Venus. This paralymic performance is one such example of inspiration and innovation coming together in one moving, memorable event; 3D printed fashion at its best!