If it weren’t for 3D printer technology, we’d pretty much still be living in the Dark Ages.
Your computer and smart phones are practically cavemen tools these days. Besides anything Elon Musk is behind, the real impressive technology du jour is, of course, anything made on a 3D printer. Especially if it happens to be shoes.
Enter Continuum Fashion’s Myth, a collection of high heels meets high-tech 3D printed shoes. Designer Mary Huang has called them ‘computational couture.’
“The collection contrasts overtly digital geometry with very organic, natural forms,” the company says on its website. “The tree-like designs are inspired by Bernini’s statue of Apollo and Daphne– the story of the nymph who turns into a laurel tree. These designs were created to exemplify the beauty of how objects are made on a 3d printer, where the object “grows” layer by layer.
The time lapse video of a Myth shoe being printed is pretty darn amazing.
While the kitsch factor of 3D printed fashion is quite impressive enough to stand on its own, the really great thing about these 3D printed shoes is the smaller carbon footprint. The shoes can be made with less environmentally intensive materials, such as a wood composite and the urethane soles on the shoes, which are also 3D printed. And, says the brand, “these designs are a virtually zero waste product. 3D printing will be the leapfrog technology in achieving sustainable manufacturing.”
We love a good leapfrog technology, particularly if it means fashion at your fingertips and not at the cost of fossil fuels.And as everyone knows, no matter how strange and sic-fi the future may get, couture footwear will always be in style.
Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger
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images via Continuum Fashion