Albert Sanchez

“Dita’s Gown,” a dress designed for Dita Von Teese using 3-D printing technology — which is most often used to create objects and architectural models — caused a stir when it was first shown at a symposium on 3-D design in New York last March. On June 12, it will be the West Coast’s turn to marvel, when one of its masterminds, the costume and jewelry designer Michael Schmidt, discusses the dress at an event at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The gown, which the L.A.-based Schmidt designed with the Brooklyn architect Francis Bitonti (mainly via Skype, over a four-month period), is a true marriage of fashion and architecture. Bitonti built a digital model of Von Teese’s body that Schmidt used to design the garment so that it fit the burlesque performer to a T. Shapeways, a leader in 3-D printing, produced the dress’s 17 sections, which were then assembled by hand before being polished, lacquered and encrusted with more than 12,000 Swarovski crystals. With a netlike nylon structure connected by nearly 3,000 unique joints, the gown is the first fully articulated garment made using 3-D printing.

“The crystals are the heaviest part of the dress,” says Schmidt, who adds that the 11.5-pound garment “is much lighter than most of the costumes Dita wears on stage.” Schmidt, who has designed costumes for Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Madonna, among others, wanted to push the technology and explore its potential for fashion. The result is a sensuous, malleable garment that moves with the wearer’s body. “I often use mesh and chain mail in my costume designs,” he said, “and I was fascinated by the opportunity to make something light and fluid out of rigid materials.” (Schmidt and Bitonti are planning to continue their collaboration, this time on a collection of 3-D printed jewelry.) And this fall, the dress will return to New York in “Out of Hand,” an exhibition of digital design at the Museum of Arts and Design.

Schmidt discusses how he created Dita’s 3-D-printed dress in a video, below.

