Burlesque star Dita Von Teese modeled the world's first fully-articulated 3-D printed gown at New York City’s Ace Hotel on Monday night. Designer Michael Schmidt and architect Francis Bitonti made the entire gown virtually - the former first mocking up the dress on his iPad and then communicating with Bitonti via Skype to figure out how to make all 17 pieces and 3,000 joints work together to move freely with the body.
Once that was devised, the two went to 3-D printing design studio Shapeways to print each of the pieces, which Schmidt and Bitonti then lacquered black and embellished with 13,000 Swarovski crystals.
The 3-D frock, which took three months to make and was created specifically for the brunette beauty’s voluptuous body, is also much lighter than the outfits she’s used to wearing. Each of the 17 pieces is hollow, totaling in 11.5 pounds of material.
“We definitely wanted an exaggerated shape,” she explained. “When people ask if it's comfortable I say, 'Well, I like exaggerated shapes so the corseting is nice and tight.' The only thing I was super aware of was my heel getting stuck in the hem, but that didn't happen."
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