A spectacular marriage of fashion and technology will be presented on a Gold Coast runway this Thursday featuring the creations of award-winning Malaysian designer Melinda Looi.
A collection of five avian-inspired designs will be on show alongside pieces from across the globe in one of Australia’s very first 3D printed fashion shows, presented by Griffith University, Materialise, QMI Solutions and Q-WIN.
The pioneering Belgian 3D printing (or additive manufacturing) company Materialise gained fashion fame after their collaborations with Studio XO to create two dresses for Lady Gaga.
According to the show’s organiser, Dr Jennifer Loy, who leads3D printing in the 3D Design Digital Media program at the Queensland College of Art Griffith University, this incredible fashion is the perfect demonstration of the technology’s creative possibilities.
“3D printed fashion brings art and engineering together. It is inspiring designers — including our students here on the Gold Coast — to explore new creative forms and reinvent what fashion can be,” she says.
“The theme of Melinda’s collection delves into the structure and nature of birds and her dramatic work is wearable art.
“The pieces took a team of six to eight people to bring to life, including three 3D modellers, two engineers and Melinda’s own fashion team, and it demonstrates the collaborations across disciplines that are emerging.”
For Melinda it was a challenging project but one she describes as “a dream come true”.
“The collaborative effort involving people from different fields and backgrounds truly reminded me that exciting and beautiful things happen when art and technology meet!” she said.
“It is a great honour to be the first Asian fashion designer to create a collection using additive manufacturing technology.”
Wim Michiels, CEO of Materialise Malaysia, said he hopes the collaboration with Melinda will “help make additive manufacturing more accessible to everyday people, break traditional design barriers and inspire people to develop their own unique and individual designs”.
3D Fashion Show
featuring Melinda Looi’s Collection
6.00pm, Thursday 29 May, 2014.
Drama Theatre (G07), Griffith University Gold Coast campus.
LIMITED TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLINE HERE.
The fashion show follows a full day event entitled The Body Inside and Out to address the challenges and advances in Additive Manufacturing for medical, engineering, forensic and museum applications.
For a complete run down of the day’s seminars and demonstrations, download the program here.
The two events are a joint initiative from the Queensland College of Art and the Griffith School of Engineering. Learn about the new Industrial Design degree here.
Media Contact: Lauren Marino, 0418 799 544, [email protected]
