3D Printing

Italian Fashion House Has 3D Printed Fashion in the Bag

This morning, while browsing through Facebook, I ran into a post by my friend Chiara Fassari on an article by established design connoisseurs Design Milk, featuring an entirely 3D printed clutch from Italian fashion house Maison 203.

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Although I am no fashion expert myself, it seems that the Armure clutch combines the unique design possibilities available through 3D printing with a high quality product that has an elevated perceived value. This is something that has been achieved rarely in the past and, yet, is becoming more common, as demonstrated by the success of 3D printed end products at top design firms (for example the Xuberance lamps at Milan Design Week).

Maison 203 is based in Treviso, Italy and specializes in 3D printed products, made both by FFF and laser sintering. We had covered the company in 2013 and they have already come a come a long way, with over 50 points of sale all over the world, and Maison 203 products available at some of the top shops and department stores in the world, including La Rinascente in Milan, the MoMA Stores in New York and Japan, Perez Art Museum in Miami, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and many more.

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Armure is their very first 3D printed clutch and it was first exhibited at the recent Maison & Objet in Paris, one of the top fashion trade shows worldwide. Armure, the first clutch by Maison 203 designed by Odo Fioravanti – winner of the 2011 Compasso d’Oro and 2014 German Design Award – was inspired by Aristotle’s unconventional observation that “In all things of nature there is something of the marvellous”.  As a result, the Armure clutch sees a crossover between geometrical and organic shapes, as well as technological execution and natural inspiration.

Specifically, the clutch was designed after the cypress fruit, which features small spherical pine cones, inspiring Maison 203 to use round shapes suspended over an inner space. “The two overlapping layers create a depth effect,” d’Oro said, “and the clutch is reinforced by this gentle elastic armour, a sort of exoskeleton made possible by the versatility of the 3D print.”  Maison 203’s designers explained that the delicate outer armour, thanks to the system of protruding plates, hides the opening, fitted with a handy magnet-based system: thus, the clutch – wholly made of sintered nylon – looks like a perfect shell, a small ripe fruit that turns into a woman’s accessory with a strong aesthetic impact. A thin chain completes the bag, allowing it to be used also as a shoulder bag. Armure, conceived in black, powder pink, bordeaux and night blue, 19 x 14 x 6 cm in size will be soon available also in the e-commerce area of Maison 203 www.maison203.com.

The clutch is available in black, powder pink, bordeaux, and night blue, and the laser sintering lines are still clearly visible, but, apparently, they do not lower the product’s perceived value. In fact, they may even increase it, making it clear to a public that is becoming more aware of 3D printing technologies, that this product could not have been made in any other way.

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