The Balkans’ First Fully 3D Printed Fashion Collection Hit the Runway with Miss Globe 2016

I used to be a huge Project Runway TV show junkie – I never missed an episode, and even though I certainly wouldn’t call myself a fashionista or clothing expert, I loved looking at the outfits the designers came up with each week. From the safety of my couch, I always judged the clothes on whether or not they appeared wearable. Even if a dress is a structural marvel, or has a really pretty, extremely full skirt, if it doesn’t look like someone besides the model could conceivably walk around in it, I didn’t like it as much.

I feel the same way about 3D printed fashion – even if it’s really innovative and unique, if it looks like I couldn’t actually wear it out somewhere, I tend to judge it more harshly (fun fact – 3D printed fashion was a Project Runway challenge in 2015!). 3D printed dresses and fashion accessories are no stranger to the top runways or to young designers, and recently, a fully 3D printed collection of dresses created by fashion brand ONUS and 3D modeling and printing firm 3B Army were worn not only by fashion models, but also competitors in the 2016 Miss Globe competition.

The collection, which features 3D printed dresses that look pretty wearable to me, took roughly six months to create, and was presented at the international fashion show event in November, in conjunction with the Miss Globe Albania 2016 event. This was the first fashion show to feature a fully 3D printed clothing collection from the Balkan region; both ONUS and 3B Army are located in Albania.

ONUS got its start as a women’s fashion salon in 1927, under Jonuz Pernaska. When the communist system was installed in 1948, the salon had to close its doors, but Pernaska kept designing clothes at home anyway, until his wife and eldest son took over upon his death. The salon was reopened by the Pernaska family last year, and the first Albanian fashion brand was dubbed ONUS, for Jonuz, and the Latin meaning for “obligation.”

3B Army creates 3D printed products for branding purposes, like keychains, smartphone stands and pen holders, along with 3D printed products and personalized gifts, 3D printed lighting (I really want the Pumpkin Lamp!), 3D printed scale models, and of course, 3D printed fashion. The firm is an exclusive reseller for Ultimaker 3D printers, and recently opened its new 3B High-Tech Zone, a 3D lab that offers 3D printing and scanning, rapid prototyping services, design assistance and consulting services, Autodesk 3ds Max Modeling, and AutoCAD and Rhino processing.

ONUS designed dresses for 43 Miss Globe contestants to wear during the competition, five of which were 3D printed; two additional 3D printed dresses were shown during the fashion show. Each 3D printed dress had its own name, such as the Mondrian 3.0 dress, worn by Miss Colombia, the Parametric Ivory dress (my personal favorite), worn by Miss South Africa, and the Voronoi Life Dress, worn by Miss Algeria.

Fiordi Pernaska, with 3B Army, told 3DPrint.com, “We have organised the fashion show event with Miss Globe 2016 and Miss Albania on the 25th and 27th of November where the first 3D Printed Collection of the Balkan Region was presented and it had a huge success.”

If you scroll through the 3D printed dress collection on the ONUS page, the dress-making details are listed below each beautiful piece. For example, it took a total of 42 hours to 3D print the Parametric Ivory dress, followed by 30 hours of hand crafting. The long, electric green Carnivora dress, worn by Miss Ukraine, took the longest to print, at a staggering 240 hours, with another 60 hours of hand crafting after. On the other end of the scale, the barely-there Lighting dress was only a 30-hour print job, with 20 hours of hand crafting once it was off the printbed.

Check out the video of the ONUS and 3B Army Fashion Show below; some of the dresses worn in the Miss Globe 2016 competition are near the end:

https://youtu.be/HZOr9g6NW0w

Discuss in the Fashion Show forum at 3DPB.com.