>> Usually there's an instinct, an idea. And when the instinct resonates between the three of us, then we feel like we need to make it, bring it to life. And each time it comes to life, it depends who's guiding this instinct to come to life. So whether it's a pattern who's guiding in, whether it's one of us who's guiding in, whether it's a textile or a technology that dictates how this idea is going to come to life. By being involved in all kinds of intricate geometry, it requires us to go further and further into means of expressing that geometry. So that led us directly into 3D printing because that enables us to express exact geometry. >> I met Gabi and Adi and Angie through a mutual friend, Bradley Rothenberg who had been doing some of the earlier work with them, some earlier textile work. I had been kind of exploring patterning systems as it relates to architecture and how you kind of tile space. I have always been interested in how you could do similar things in different design disciplines. Fashion I think in particular. And when I had kind of first met threeASFOUR and was exposed to their work, I was struck by how they are exploring a similar thing. Mainly geometry and how you can kind of wrap a form in it, or wrap a human body in it, in this case. They had a relationship with Stratasys, the 3D printing company to do a dress kind of sponsoring the fabrication of the dress. So when we started, the project it was to do a single piece. One dress form. >> The most natural way for us to work is to pick a silhouette that we've done before and build on that. In many cases, it may change. In this case, is a very classic threeASFOUR cut. We basically scanned a person in real life wearing the dress and then we had the base silhouette to work from. >> We did play with the Z axis off of that dress. Because you're printing it you're able to add thickness to the surface. So in some parts like especially the shoulders, it gets bigger in certain areas and we had to kind of back and forth design the overall silhouette. And fashion function in a geometric case, is really about the movement of the human body and how you are articulating that and working with it. And I think all the pieces are definitely exploring that and interested in that, how you can take a patterning system and apply it across the body, and make it change and transform based on the body and on the ergonomics of your body, and how the person is moving. >> These are the shoulders, one, two. That's the chest, three. These are the back pieces here and here. So that's center back here. This is the bottom back. So that's your butt, here and here. The moment you create a three dimensional weave, you start thinking about movement in three directions. So instead of the fabric that is stretching on the X, Y plane, you have a fabric that is stretching on the Z plane. So X, Y, Z becomes much more agile and much more, how would you say it? True to your anatomy type of movement. So the fabric will be able to emulate your anatomy movement much more directly. >> How you use technology to reinterpret old ideas, is an important thing. There's a lot of different machines and technologies to work with. So the exact dimensional constraints that you have to work within are different for every technology. The specific material constraints, like how thin can I go until it breaks are very different for each technology. So some of the dresses like isolation, for example, was all printed as flat pieces and it was printed in a rubber-like material so we can bend it into shape. Is really a textile design process because you're printing out the pattern pieces as geometric swatches in a way, and you have to know that when you sew that all together it takes on a three-dimensional shape. >> Model in the 3D printing division of threeASFOUR manuals and the machine part, I'm the one once those babies come out of the box and they have to clean them with a toothbrush and then lay them out like a piece of puzzle, make sure everything is correct and then I try to come in and figure out how to attach the babies onto something that is like layer approximate to human skin but hold it all together which is usually like kind of a mesh body shell underneath. And in this case, we use fishing wire. Hold them all into place because some pieces that obviously as you can see here on the heavier side, really thick and blending into something very intricate, and skinny, and soft. The contradiction between both materials which is actually the same material is just through the variation of thickness. It's like David and Goliath fighting with each other actually when they are put next to each other. >> The whole process is a lot of back and forth between analog and digital processes. So whether we're playing with paper dolls, scanning that into the computer, or scanning a paper dress on a person, that goes into the computer, we digitally test it, print some swatches, maybe print a whole piece. But along the way, you are always communicating between different mediums. >> You know, we are not the first ones to be doing 3D printing, but we felt that we wanted to approach it the same way that we've been approaching fabric manipulation textile. So we wanted to see 3D printing as a tool to evolve textile making into many steps ahead. >> To be honest, I think in general, mankind is not really ready for anything that experimental yet. It's way too out there for the general public. But, you always need the pioneers to take it thus so it becomes the norm. >> You have to be honest and say the technology is very far from a point where we'll readily be producing consumer friendly 3D printed clothes. The need for textiles is like one of the most basic human needs. And I mean, but we're always going to need them. It's like, how does the tool allow us to kind of reinterpret what those are, what a textile is like one of the most ancient human things out there.