Application of 3D Printing Technology
3D Printing Technology join in Fashion Industry
I magine drawing what you want to wear for tomorrow. Traditional designing in the fashion industry has provided many wearable products for a long time. However, the hand-drawn designs are subjected to many limiting factors in which caps the creativity of newer designs. 3D printing technology is also known as additive manufacturing which is term accurately describes how this technology works to create objects like first step is the preparation before printing, second step is actual printing process, and the last step is the finishing process .
In recent years, most of the products from 3D technology were created for the fashion industry such as shoes and clothes. Currently, the core focus and feature of 3D printing technologies allow designers to break through the boundaries of traditional design. Perhaps what the 3D printing technology can bring to the table of fashion design potentially changes the game, suitable sizes for customers and allowing designers to expand their design variety.
Initially, one of 3D printing’s foremost advantages is that it can design clothes for customers suitable for any size. Since people sometimes cannot purchase clothes of suitable size due to differences in body types; in the traditional method, clothing is manufactured with hands-by-hands to drawing preliminary sketch in fashion designs, it makes most of designers abandon uses traditional ways to designs, they want to use computer-assisted design techniques like 3D printing technology (John S. Major and Valerie Steel 2019.) Thus, traditional clothes ways to designs clothes is not required by people need, it will get more and more errors on size of clothes.
As a result, it requires tuning of the settings in the machines to compromise the differences. For instance, Litchfield, a startup that tailors clothing for smartphone users, allowed customers to customize clothing with their software. In partnership with Litchfield, Redthread’s website lets customers fill out a body composition quiz by taking a series of full-body photos with their mobile phones. Redthread extracts three-dimensional measurements from these photos and combines them with the client’s fitness preferences to create a custom project (Pardes 2019 Para. 3). Also, when designers want to create a new or more than one clothes, they need to know what kind of types of materials and someone size of body types, and, they can start it like the first step when using 3D printing technology; according to Sun and Zhao say,
“Traditional prototyping and production processes for fashion designers (such as 2D and 3D) these design products require to understand true material properties and dimensions of body” .
Therefore, clothing measurements from 3D technology is more accurate than that of the traditional method. This example further suggests that 3D measurements are more efficient than the traditional method. In addition, Arielle Pardes’ concept points to further potentials of the technology, 3D printing technology uses area in small scale will development better than now such as people can design their own clothes at home. According to Pardes suggests that, “Israeli fashion designer Danit Peleg believes that in the future we’ll be able to “download” our clothes and fabricate them at home using 3D printers that can spin soft materials”(2019.) Moreover, the writer argues that traditional measurements are not always relevant for customers to choose from because people clothes that do not fit well on customers are uncomfortable.
Although some may argue in opposition that the traditional method can still fabricate clothes that fit correctly, there are factors to be considered, such as cost, resource exploitation, and time. It is important to note that wearing clothes fabricated the traditional way may vary in the clothing size. However, your body composition should not vary by a lot. As a result, the inconsistency in traditional clothing production creates this blurry inaccurate distinction of clothes of different sizes. Therefore, I believe that 3D printing technology is efficient in designing clothes and fabricates clothes for unambiguous sizes.
Previously, the concept of ‘Standard Size’ did not exist before the 20th century. People wear clothes made by themselves or by professional tailors. However, during the civil war, the militaries needed a better way to mass-produce uniforms, they first need a measure way to calculate these soldier’s body size, and to get average number to record these data. From this quote, “They came up with what is now basically an algorithm,” says Beth Dincuff, a fashion historian at Parsons School of Design. And
“What is the average sleeve length that a soldier with a 32-inch waist and 40-inch shoulder-width needs?” (Pardes 2019 Para. 7.)
This type of question leads to how the military fabricated uniform. From this example, it is shown that those body measurements are shared and used to be widely used in the market. Most of the designers use these size models to manufacture clothes.
In other words, I considered the time, cost, and resources limited in uniform production during the war. It means it is not all soldiers can get the same size clothes on same time, but, the point is that the people should get themsevles sizes rather than norm sizes.
people should get themsevles sizes rather than norm sizes.
Furthermore, I think that people wear clothes made by themselves because they knew their sizes and can adjust to their comfort. In this matter, I do not believe that people should follow the concept of standard sizes in fabricating clothes. Fashion should apply to everyone and not just for soldiers who have limited time and resources due to the war. As a result, 3D printing technology allows people to design suitable clothes for their individual needs as well as minimizing the trial-and-error process in manufacturing their clothes. Therefore, also minimizing wasted material, time and cost in the fabrication process.
Adding onto previous points, 3D printing technology changed the way people designed products. It allows designers to think outside of the box and create any garment without restrictions. “Without the need for a specific mold, designers are free to create intricate geometries and structures, which are not only aesthetically pleasing but can add smart functionality” (Mageean para.3), and, Richardot mentions that 3D printing can significantly expand the creative possibilities of clothing design. It allows the creation of shapes without the need for molds, thus managing to produce elements of extreme complexity that would otherwise be impossible to achieve.
As Mageean and Richardot indicats in their articles, 3D printing technology provides fashion designers with an excellent platform for their work. In agreement with Mageean and Richardot, I believe that 3D printing technology is developing into an essential part of the fashion industry. As we continue to discover more types of materials and aesthetics, the diversity of fashion and its applicable works are also growing. Maggean’s article shows that,
“Neri Oxman, three ASFOUR, Iris Van Herpen, Julia Koerner and Noa Raviv — they used this technology to create intricate geometric designs that are impossible with conventional manufacturing” (Maggean para.9).
In this matter, 3D printing technology allows design involving intricate geometrical designs. From Maggean’s point, it would mean that 3D printing technology may become a trend in the fashion industry rather than replacing the traditional method. Another relevant example would be “Iris Van Herpen’s latest haute couture collection ‘Ludi Nature.’ The foliage dress incorporates traditional textiles with 3D printed plastic elements utilizing PolyJet technology” (Maggean para. 11). Through the benefit of integrating 3D printing and different materials, fashion designing can provide practicality and comfort for the wearer.
Lastly, the author mentions that 3D printing technology does not only apply to fashion but other areas such as medical facility, aerospace and automotive. This is significant because 3D printing technology opens up more possibilities in how things work in the future. As a result, I agree with Maggean that 3D printing technology significantly affects the fashion industry in a positive direction.
In conclusion, the utilization of 3D printing technology allows designers to fabricate clothes creatively and efficiently without compromising accuracy in production. 3D printing technology should trend and cultivate designers in designing complex varieties and provide suitable sizes for people. As 3D printing technology continues to grow, the costs involved should reduce shortly. Moreover, as an Israeli fashion designer Danit Peleg believes, shortly, we will be able to ‘download’ our clothes and make them at home using a spinning 3D printer.
