Pia Hinze in one of a new generation of fashion designers and last week she contacted us to introduce us to her new, and first, graduate collection — “Néobaroque”, which includes a startling but rather beautiful 3D printed dress.
Pia displays obvious talent and her collection is currently featured as an entry for the famous Muuse x vogue talents award. Before being nominated however, Pia spent the first two years of her fashion studies in her hometown of Munich before spending her graduation year studying in Esmod Lyon.
Pia tells me that her Néobaroque collection is “inspired by both the never ending possibilities of 3D printing technology and the opulence of baroque architecture” and combines them, seemingly effortlessly.
But that’s one of the secrets of successful 3D printing — it ‘looks’ effortless. Anyone using the tech will be more than aware that a great deal of effort is required. At the heart of Pia’s fashion collection is a fully 3D printed dress, which as she says, is a fashion statement “that reflects the aesthetics of the past without being old fashioned.”
Admitting to being somewhat overwhelmed by all the possibilities, Pia experimented a lot and found she could create organic shapes like flourishes, a virtually impossible thing to do with fabrics, even leather. She went on to design many different shapes, dresses and accessories and found 3d-activation.de — who she calls “a great German company” that she could work with to realize her vision.
The dress, with a total volume of 2500cm³ was printed in eight different parts using the laser sintering (LS) in PA 12 material. The entire printing time was in the region of 40 hours.
Once the printing process was completed, the hard work started when the parts were finished and glued together. Pia subsequently painted the whole dress gold “to underline the baroque spirit.”
