Iris Van Herpen Voltage dress

By printing layers of powder in 3D, you can create a lace-like transparency. A pioneering example is this unique couture dress. It was created in 2013 by Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen in collaboration with architect Julia Körner. The Belgian company Materialise produced the dress after an intensive development process.

First, the design was drawn in 3D with a computer program. Then the computer controlled the printer, which built up the parts of the dress layer by layer with polyurethane powder. Polyurethane is a thermoplastic. It was used for the first time for 3D printing to create this very dress. Once printed, the parts were removed from the powder, finished, sandblasted, painted and assembled by hand.

Van Herpen opted for a lace-like structure because, combined with polyurethane, it is more supple and comfortable to wear. But the high production costs of 3D printing also play a role. The costs are calculated based on the volume of material, so creations made of fine, mesh-like structures are cost-effective.