File this under cool: a dress made by a 3-D printer, lacquered black + embellished with 12,00 black Swarovski crystals. Michael Schmidt, stage-wear designer, debut the technological wonder earlier this week at the Ace Hotel, modeled by Dita Von Teese.
The dress was created virtually. Schmidt designed the entire dress on his iPad and communicated with Bitonti through Skype during the process of imagining 17 unique pieces and 3,000 joints that let the dress move with the body.
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The next step was working with 3D-printing design studio Shapeways, to print each piece before it was lacquered black and adorned with a mere 13,000 black Swarovski crystals. “That’s not much in my world, I’m used to having that many on my wrist,” Dita Von Teese pointed out, elegantly extending her arm toward the designers.
The biggest challenge in creating the dress was working with materials that weren’t malleable as they came out of the printer. “To do that you have to break it down into individual components so it can become something sensual,” Schmidt said. “Taking this hard plastic material and making it flow and sexy and undulate around the body.”
