3D Printing Goes Ready to Wear as Danit Peleg’s Bomber Jacket Becomes the First Commercially Available 3D Printed Garment

The only fashion shows I’ve ever attended have featured 3D printed collections, with talented designers turning to 3D printing to create wearable art ready to walk down the runway at RAPID. While an additive manufacturing tradeshow isn’t necessarily the go-to place for fashion in general, the shows have been standing room-only the last two years. In 2016, designer Danit Peleg was among those showcasing a collection at RAPID, and it was the first chance I’d personally had to see her designs in person. And now, we all have the opportunity to do much more than just see her 3D printed looks on the runway as she is offering a customized, 3D printed bomber style jacket as the first commercially available 3D printed garment that’s available for purchase right now.

Peleg, a talented young designer out of Israel, shot to prominence in fashion with the unveiling of her 2015 collection of clothes 3D printed at home in what she saw as a vision for the future of fashion. That collection hit the runway at RAPID 2016, showing off the ease of movement possible in the cleverly designed plastic garments; you can see the entire collection, and the designer, walk together in the first 30 seconds of part two of the video I took of last year’s fashion show (and see individual pieces shown in part one here):

Key to Peleg’s vision of 3D printed fashion is that the clothes actually be wearable, not just high-fashion. Last September, that wearability was in focus when Peleg designed a dress ready for the samba — and that’s just what happened when Paralympic snowboarder Amy Purdy wore a completely 3D printed dress for a choreographed dance with a massive robot at the Paralympic opening ceremony in Rio 2016. Fashion becomes much more accessible when it’s something you can actually imagine wearing in real life.

While my current lack of plans to dance with robotic arms (plans I am willing to make at any time, mind you) precludes my immediate need for a performance-ready dress like that made for Purdy, and I can’t see running for groceries in, say, the fairly see-through striped skirt I love so much from Peleg’s 2015 collection, that vision changes when I consider her new commercially available jacket.

The jacket is fully customizable and is available now to order. Limited to a run of 100 personalized jackets, Peleg is remaining pragmatic about the approach to commercializing, avoiding the all-too-common trap of over-promising and under-delivering by keeping to a set run edition. Each jacket, she explains, takes 100 hours to 3D print and create to custom order.

Peleg explains the vision behind the jacket here:

In designing a custom jacket, a user is walked through several steps of creation. Unique to the person in control of the digital design, jackets can be customized by choosing:

• 3D printed fabric color
• Lining fabric
• A word emblazoned across the back (up to five characters)
• Size

All this is followed up with a virtual fitting session to ensure the piece looks just as you like; instructions for fit will be sent via email through iPhone or other platforms. I customized a jacket in about five minutes; the process is quite straightforward.

“Own a part of history. This is the first ready-to-wear 3D printed jacket available to purchase online. It takes more than 100 hours to print and assemble. It’s printed in Spain and assembled and shipped from Tel Aviv. It’s a first step in the journey to a 3D printed world. Thanks to this revolutionary technology, every piece is unique, made to measure with your own customizations and its production process produces zero waste,” the jacket’s site explains.

“The jacket is printed with a flexible, rubber-like material and has a silky fabric lining that makes it super comfortable to wear. This is a limited edition of 100 jackets. Your jacket’s serial number will be 3D printed on its label and it will be shipped in a premium box.”

The jacket I designed (3DP4E), trying to keep to something a bit TARDIS blue. Please note there are now less than two shopping months until my birthday.

Peleg worked again with creative collaborative partner Gerber Technologies, using their AccuMark 3D and YuniquePLM, to bring this jacket to life.

“With each collection, Gerber has helped me streamline my workflow to accelerate the 3D printed design process. My vision of the future is that you will buy your 3D print file and print your clothes at home or at a designated store,” Peleg said of her work.

“We are excited to help Danit bring 3D printed garments to the market and be a part of this incredible journey. Our creative partnership has helped define a workflow in AccuMark 3D for the benefit of our customers who will transform the industry in the coming years,” said Elizabeth King, Vice President of Digital Solutions, Community and Eco-System at Gerber Technology.