Fashion Forward: Co-creating the First 3D Printed Luxury Glasses

We first encountered Dávid Ring when he approached our consumer 3D printing service, i.materialise, for help with his end-of-year project. We are always on the lookout for inspiring young designers, and we thought Dávid showed great potential! The project developed into a co-creation between Dávid, and our concept designer Nils Faber, who worked together to design five ingenious 3D-printed sunglasses. Dávid used his fashion know-how to provide us with an initial design, as well as paper cut-outs, sketches, and fabric samples detailing the exact colors he needed. Then we translated the design into 3D, and printed it out using two different techniques: for the lenses we used Stereolithography, and the frames were Laser Sintered.

The sunglasses are fully 3D-printed, produced as a total concept and foregoing the need for hinges or assembly. Each pair came in a different monochrome color finish, providing the perfect finishing touch for Dávid’s stunning designs.

The designs also translated well to the catwalk – it takes talent to stand out in a fashion show so replete with passionate, innovative creations. The show started off with the first-year students, divided into three themes entitled “Natural Spirit”, with a focus on skirts, “Put Your Head on my Shoulder”, which was about dresses, and “Carpet Fantasy” – the experimental section. The second-year students opened with the theme of historical costumes; we saw everything from milkmaids, foppish gentlemen and Victorian ladies to aviators! The third-year bachelors – among which Dávid Ring – were introduced by the theme of ethnical costumes.

From Dávid’s eclectic, brightly colored dresses to walking coat racks and distorted heads, it was an impressive mix of political statement and creative power. Finally, the whole second part of the show was dedicated to the six master students, a continuation of the original “Antwerp Six” who took the fashion world by storm in the eighties. We hope the fashion department students of 2016 go on to create great things!