Anouk Wipprecht Joins Immersive Dining Experience Featuring 3D Printed Garments

If you are tired of your meals sat next to a flickering light and want a more interactive experience, then you’re in luck. Dutch “FashionTech” Designer Anouk Wipprecht recently took to social media to announce Journey 360, a new immersive dining experience, which opened to the general public January 5th in NYC.

Anouk Wipprecht. (Photo courtesy of the designer)

The dinner is a five course prix fixe meal and comes alive with interactive storytelling, 360° video, and Broadway performers. It’s an innovative combination of food, fashion, and technology and could change the way we interact at the dinner table..

We did a thing!! Last couple of months in Chelsea, New York ♡♡♡

Opening December 30th for ‘friend & family’ – a restaurant x immersive experience x fashion x robotics x projections x art and much more, come join us! Many fun artists involved in this, and robotic dresses by me 👗 + ⚙ + 🔩

Anouk is no stranger to innovation and has become well-known for her engineered fashion over the years. If you haven’t seen her spider dress yet, Google it immediately. It’s amazing. This time, however, she had a new challenge in mind: to collaborate with Broadway producer Marc Routh—along with a collective of designers, artists, writers, chefs, performers, and producers—to create a truly immersive dining experience. The group spent the last several months collaborating to bring this idea to reality.

Diners having dinner at JOURNEY 360 (Photo courtesy of Anouk Wipprecht)

“…located in the NOMAD District, Journey introduces theatrical gastronomy to New York City with the first and only immersive dining experience. Rich in culinary indulgences, this captivating multi-sensory adventure will bring you and your guests around the world and beyond with delightful dining, cutting-edge 3D technology, dazzling animation, and unforgettable 360° interactive storytelling from Broadway performers” with Marc Routh Hyphen Hub Asher Remy-Toledo

From the pictures posted to Instagram and LinkedIn, the experience seems truly unique and will eventually have four different “journeys” (JOURNEY 360, JOURNEY Salon, JOURNEY Epic Cafe and JOURNEY Odyssey) people can enjoy. While only JOURNEY 360 and Salon are open now, JOURNEY Epic Cafe opens next week and JOURNEY Odyssey opens at the end of the month. 

What has caught our eyes the most from the press releases, however, have been the costumes the characters wear; each electronic, robotic and 3D printed. Anouk again partnered with Shapeways in New York to print the components using both thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and Polyamide-11 (PA-11/Nylon 11). They chose to use selective laser sintering (SLS) and HP’s Multi Jet Fusion (MJF) Printers to print the costumes, with MJF printing the more flexible and comfortable pieces like the neck garment seen below.  The designer even stated the added benefits of printing TPU on the HP MJF printers saying “(this process) allowed us to make the pieces both flexible as comfortable for our cast, while integrated with technology and electronics. TPU has a rubber-like flexibility, good impact and is resistance durable so it’s perfect for this kind of designing.”

A MJF 3D printed neck garment worn by a cast member at JOURNEY 360. (Photo courtesy of Anouk Wipprecht)

“With electronics becoming smaller and smaller, the possibilities became endless at the beginning of this century. What I (Anouk) am trying to do for the past 20 years is connecting our bodies to electronic and robotic (fashion) design. However what does it mean when we can connect technological-expressive garments to our bodies, body-signals and even emotions? What dialogues can we trigger? This is what I am exploring with designs like these.”

The garments have captured our imagination, and hopefully, will capture the imagination of diners as well. The initial feedback from their soft-opening has been excellent, and we are excited to see 3D printing be a part of this event. If you are interested in experiencing this yourself, tickets will cost you $175, and can be bought here.