Futurist Fashion Designer Envisions a World of 3D-Printed Possibilities

By Stephanie Walden2014-10-16 17:43:01 UTC

Fashion, posits Mary Huang, founder of high-tech concept brand Continuum, is an industry ripe for innovation.

In an age when nearly every industry is undergoing huge technological disruption, the fashion business, particularly when it comes to the manufacturing process, often employs antiquated methods that have existed for dozens or hundreds of years. "It's an interesting last frontier for technology," says Huang.

But all that may soon change. Huang's company which operates in her Brooklyn studio and apartment is at the forefront of a revolutionary concept: Fashion that you can design, download and print at home. In short, on-demand fashion. Continuum currently offers several products for sale online, with a focus on futuristic footwear as well as jewelry and even a 3D-printed bikini top, listed online as a piece suitable for the "boldly trendsetting."

"I saw that these [affordable] 3D printers were coming out, and I thought that the most logical thing to try to print would be something like a pair of shoes so you could download your shoes at night, and get new shoes in the morning," says Huang.

Prototype: leather upper with 3d printed base. Would take a while to get it to work right. Worth it??

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Huang was one of the first designers to begin dabbling in 3D-printed fashion. "Three or four years ago, no one else was doing this," she says. When it comes to the actual process of designing, some elements are similar to traditional methods: Each pair of shoes begins with a simple sketch.

The printing itself takes 8-12 hours and, at the moment, all orders placed with Continuum are printed and shipped from Huang's at-home studio. "It's like artisanal 3D printing," she says, laughing.

To date, Huang's work has appeared in a variety of museums, exhibitions and high-end concept stores such as STORY, located in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood. The ultimate goal with Continuum, says Huang, is to solve the last piece of the puzzle when it comes to revolutionizing digital production of fashion how to get your design out of the computer.

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Futurist Fashion Designer Envisions a World of 3D-Printed Possibilities