Designer Julia Daviy Stuns at New York Fashion Week with Functional 3D Printed Fashion Collection

Clothing is one of the many tools with which we use to express ourselves. I am generally a jeans and t-shirt kind of person, but many of my shirts have quotes from books or movies on them, or logos from places I’ve visited; I also still wear many of my shirts from college. Now, I certainly don’t wear t-shirts to special events – I pull out the dresses for those – but I consider casual clothing to be more of my everyday type of outfit, and I bet I’m not the only one. But that’s one of the great things about fashion – if you consider skirts and dresses to be everyday clothes, you’ve got plenty of choices.

Speaking very generally, 3D printed pieces of clothing are not what I usually consider to be everyday wear. I personally find a lot of 3D printed fashion, while very unique and beautiful, too high concept to actually wear out anywhere. However, some 3D printing fashion designers, like Julia Daviy, are working to change this perception.

Daviy, an ecologist and clean technology industry manager, is creating a new kind of biodegradable fashion out of 3D printed plastic. She believes that 3D printing will change the way clothing is produced, and maybe even one day replace traditional textiles altogether. She also believes that the technology can be used to solve worldwide problems such as chemical pollution, animal exploitation, energy consumption, and material waste.

At this month’s prestigious New York Fashion Week (NYFW), Daviy released the first 3D printed fashion collection in the US that not only uses large-format 3D printing, but is also considered to be a functional, wearable, everyday clothing look for women. According to a press release for the Digital Journal, Daviy’s clothing “aims to liberate the creativity of women by using 3D printing technologies to create an entirely new age for the fashion industry.”

“The 2018 NYFW had history written all over it as different fashion brands across the globe took to the runway to show their latest collection. One designer that particularly caught the eyes of fashion lovers across the globe is Julia Daviy,” the Digital Journal release said. “Over the years, the concept of 3D printed pieces has grown in popularity and acceptance with designers using hard materials with ultra-sophisticated designs to create amazing pieces. However, such pieces are usually almost impossible to wear for everyday activities due to the materials used in making them.”

Daviy’s 3D printed Liberation Collection, consisting of bespoke skirts, dresses, and two suits, debuted on September 6th at The Fashion Meet Technology NYFW event. She used both FDM and SLA technology to 3D print her pieces, and combined multiple filaments. Daviy personally designs each piece from scratch, and also completes each stage of production herself.

“Julia Daviy’s works are particularly unique as all looks are completely 3D printed, which is unlike other designers in the industry that print on several parts and require further post-processing to get the final piece,” the Digital Journal press release stated. “This innovation in addition to the use of “wearable” materials that helps to bring 3D printed fashion into the mainstream of everyday clothing are distinguishing factors of the designer’s collection.”

I need to stop right here and say, for the record, that while I think Daviy’s 3D printed collection has some stunning pieces in it (her Polka Dot Exoskeleton dress inspired by sea urchins is one of my favorites), I don’t think the vast majority of it could be considered everyday wear. The closest it comes, in my opinion, is with the Lace Mini Skirt and the Pink Coral Neon Skirt, the latter of which used parametric lines and a 3D pattern not dissimilar to snakeskin. But I can’t imagine walking out of my house on some random Wednesday afternoon in the Fragility Dress.

However, with a few exceptions (looking at you, Parametric Skin Suit), I will agree that most of the collection appears to be pretty wearable. Watching some of the videos on Daviy’s website, the clothing all appears to be breathable and easy to move around in, and I would wear that cute Parametric Black Ocean Dress, 3D printed out of biodegradable PLA and flexible TPU, to any fancy evening event. Just hanging out at the mall on the weekend, however – not so much.

However, feel free to take what I’m saying with a grain of salt – this is coming from a person who is currently clad in denim shorts, a black tank top, and fluffy gray slippers, after all.

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