All Photos By Gail

This disquieting dress is 3D printed, and the 3D file was developed by designer Iris van Herpen along with architect Isaie Bloch. The file-making took two months of intense drawing and a full week of printing in a very sophisticated machine. According to van Herpen, “People often think that when you create something by machine, it is perfect, but this dress is a good example of the opposite. While the dress was printing, many small ‘faults’ happened because of the intense heating of the material. This makes the bones irregular, and makes it look even more real.”

Van Herpen’s lacelike dress, worn as an exoskeleton on the body, is the first 3D-printed garment to enter the Met’s Costumes Institute’s collection. The designer blurs traditional distinctions between ready-to-wear and haute couture by fusing the machine made and handmade, thus opening up previously unseen possibilities for the future of fashion

Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art as Part of the Manus X Machina Fashion Exhibit, which has Now Closed.

New Photos Added September 22, 2020 from the 150 Year Anniversary Exhibit: Making The Met!