3D PRINTING AND FASHION INDUSTRY.
3d Printing was invented in 1980’s using Stereo lithography technology by Charles W. Hull and has mostly been used for rapid prototyping. With the exponential growth in the technology stereo lithography is highly recommended and sought-after 3d printing technology. Now SLA is also widely used to create fashion and luxury goods. It has proved to be best suited technique because of the best surface treatment and fragility to the object. 3D printing seems more effective to create hard materials than soft ones and works best when employed to form geometric shapes. This could be the reason why stereo lithography is majorly used to create eye-wear, watches and jewelry in fashion industry.
Above all eye-wear has the potential to get more benefits from this technology with 3D printing providing an option of customizing frames and opportunity to do something similar with optical component too. 3D printing in clothing fashion is also stepping ahead as with 3D printing we get ample options to create rigid designs meant to beautify the garment, when talking about soft materials such as embroidery there is an option to use polymers like poly-amide or thermoplastic polyurethane which can be very feasible to create lace and embroidery. Big names in fashion Industry like Yuima Nakazato, who even introduced 3d printed fashion clothing in his show. With 3D printing immense growth potential in fashion industry is foreseen and it doesn’t look much farther when we can see advanced machines weaving and 3d printing at once.
Footwear and bags also has implications with 3D printing, many giant sports brands have come up with 3D printed shoes with molded soles for athletes to fit perfectly to the foot. Women footwear such as heels, boots and sandals are being presented with elegant creative designs which would have not thought of without 3D printing. Customized bags, buckles, purses are being created with additive manufacturing and the graph is expected to go even higher in the coming years.
3D printing has expanded and advanced much more than anything in the last decade, all the major industries have employed 3D printing in a way or other to innovate or to re-create. Although there are some restrictions worth considering when talking about luxury products and one restriction could be the time involved for production. Even to create a complex object of few cubic centimeters takes hours of production time. So, here traditional manufacturing may over power 3D Printing. This technology proved quite encouraging and in near future we may have machines with lesser printing time. It is affirmative that 3D Printing empowers consumers with the power of choices, to choose material and design, to re-create or to innovate but for luxury segment some more hurdles are to be crossed but when ready consumers and designers can create diversified range of products as never before!
Shabnum Bhat
