WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

3D printing is helping the fashion industry re-invent itself and fashion itself.

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3D printed clothes are starting to get fashionable, and hot on the heels of one of the top Miami designers who uses the technology to print stunning fashion lines Julia Körner, another new designer in the space, has married fashion with 3D printing to design the Setae Jacket, which takes its cues from butterfly wings.

Setae Jacket forms a part of the Chro-Morpho collection sponsored by 3D printing firm Stratasys, an American manufacturer of 3D printers, and is designed to demonstrate how technology can work in harmony with textiles.

The stunning jacket which pushes the boundaries of what’s possible with the technology was made using microscopic photos of Madagascan Sunset Butterfly wings, which were digitised into an algorithm. This algorithm then translated the colour pixels in the photos into bristles that were then 3D printed onto denim to form the garment.

Courtesy: Körner

Each bristle is intended to resemble setae – a stiff structure resembling a hair – found on the butterfly wings. When the jacket is in use, they move with the wearer to create what Körner describes as an “enigmatic visual effect.”

Körner is one of 15 designers who have been selected by the Austrianfashion.net, a platform that promotes designers from Austria, to exhibit work at Virtual Design Festival.

“[Körner’s] work on the future of 3D, as well as on its current applications, can be seen as revolutionary practice,” Austrianfashion.net explained. “Strongly believing that the future of fashion is 3D Körner is making sure she is at the forefront of the revolution.”