3D printed dresses by Iris Van Herpen stole the spotlight during Paris Fashion Week last January. The incredible outfits were part of a collaboration between the dutch designer and Neri Oxman, artist, architect and MIT professor, with the support of Belgian 3D printing services company Materialise, and Stratasys, one of the largest players in the 3D printing industry, which is based both in the US and Israel.
So it seems only natural that 3D printing played an even more relevant role during the Holon Fashion Week, Israel’s most important fashion and design event, which took place recently. Holon is a small city south of Tel Aviv and is home to both to the Design Museum Holon, which opened in 2010, and the Israel Center for Digital Art. Just a few miles to the south of Holon is Rehovot, home to Stratasys’ Israeli headquarters. They all played an important part in the “Materials of Fashion” theme that characterized this year’s event.
Stratasys also participated in the “materials library” that allowed designers and attendees to explore, touch and learn about a variety of different materials, including those used to 3D print the Iris Van Herpen collection. The amazing 3D printed shoes, designed by famed Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas for Iris Van Herpen’s collection, shown at the Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture event in July, were also on display.
3D printing’s influence on Israel’s fashion culture was most apparent during the award ceremony. Stratasys’ VP of Marketing, Arita Mattsoff, was asked to present the award for Best Accessory Design. In fact, all of the Holon Museum Fashion Award statuettes were produced using a Stratasys Objet Connex multi-material 3D printer, the same used by Neri Oxman for many of her artistic creations. Another example of delocalization of production: fashion may soon need to look further than Milan, Paris and New York.
