Assignments #1 Iris van Herpen

Iris van Herpen is a Dutch fashion designer who is widely recognized as one of forward-thinking designers in fashion. She's one of the very first designers who incorporates 3D-printing in the garment construction and has been using the technology throughout her collections.

Iris believes fashion is not just a functional and devoid of content or commercial; fashion is also an artistic expression. She has a team of approximately 20 people including those who do the hand-work, experiments, and the laser work as well as the people who work on the computer files and technical drawings. The process starts with fabrics being laid into a 3D printer that prints different materials at the same time. The dress can be printed directly onto some fabrics as thin as 0.8mm to create the optimal softness. Some materials like resin are used and experimented alternatively to create variations in colors and transparency on the garment.  All parts from a final garment often take days to print.