In a few posts published on this site a while back we looked at the early experiments carried out by designers who pioneered 3D printing techniques and applied them to garments, shoes and jewellery.
Quite a few people who tried their hands at this technique know that one insurmountable problem linked with 3D printing and fashion is the rigidity of the final design, even though more recent experiments pointed towards the possibility of instantly weaving a dress.
A new technology presented last week during the Florence-based Pitti Filati yarn fair, finally presented a more tangible future for 3D printed fashion designs.
Capalle-based Lineapiù Italia - currently led by Alessandro Bastagli - developed in collaboration with Maglificio Miles and its co-owner Alessandro Bocchese, an entirely new technology based on a 3D granular printing method that will enrich knitwear with three-dimensional structures.
NeTTA, acronym for New Technology for Textile Application employs the granular SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) method: a laser beam strikes polyamide-based polymers melting them into very thin layers of plastic powders, granting high levels of accuracy and definition and results that combine aesthetics with technical performance.
The technique – developed over the last two years – can be employed by knitting mills to produce 3D printed decorative elements and patterns that can be integrated into traditional knits, so the key once again is balancing together tradition and innovation.
The prototypes presented during Pitti Filati featured decorative collars and cuffs or inserts employed to enrich the back of a dress, but the technique can be applied to further customisable pieces and made-to-measure creations that also use body scanning technologies.
It takes roughly two hours to develop these lace-like configurations and, while the costs to manufacture these pieces are still high and the technique needs to be perfected to make sure the material becomes even more pliable than it already is (though laboratory tests on yarns yielded astounding results for what regards quality and production versatility), NeTTA could be the first glimpse over a more tangible 3D knitted future.
Bastagli doesn't seem reluctant to let 3D printers entering mills, but wants to do so in a gradual way and guarantee a high-quality finished product and manufacturing technique to designers.
"Innovation and beauty are not only Lineapiù's history, but its essence", he stated in a press release. "Today we are once again renewing our commitment to excellence, expanding possibilities for designers and knitting mills and bringing Italy back to center stage in terms of technological innovations as well. We must not be afraid of the future or of technology, because it is only through innovation that we will continue to be the reference point for the world of fashion throughout the world."
Skeptical about this project since you love traditional yarns? Lineapiù Italia provides plenty of new colours and textures for the Spring/Summer 2017 season, that revolves around a combination of two themes – art and craftsmanship.
The inspiring themes for this collection were combinations of contrasting fibers into one concept (see Naif, a ultra-fine gauze with a delicate mohair touch; Macro Nm 16.000, a super-light padded cotton), body, proportions and geometries (Charlotte, a super-crepe viscose with a grainy hand; Daino, a stretch viscose yarn with a smooth surface and Flan, a matte viscose with an innovative wavy structure), tradition and early paper produced in China from the bark of the mulberry tree (Papiro, embodying the concept of paper-making in a knitting yarn; Cell an elasticized Lyocell yarn inspired by the density and sheen of silk paper), architectural shapes and a balance between materials (Ryan, a round cotton yarn padded with cotton; Theory, a fine cotton wrapped in diabolo nylon for a sculpted and tech effect, and Samba, a very fine cotton gauze with charming surface irregularities created by micro-knots), denim (Field, a super-twisted cotton fur with filaments that recall wheat waving in the wind; Bounty, a woven cotton tape with a sturdy linen herringbone for a worn denim effect and Bouquet, a cotton yarn embroidered with paper petals that seems to tie in with the theme of sustainability as seen in Chanel's Haute Couture S/S 2016 collection), and Haute Couture in general (Eclair, an ultra-fine, shiny and mirror-like viscose with a liquid fluidity and Cheope a fine silk gauze with subtle textures).
The Lineapiù/Filclass yarns for the next season are dedicated to knitwear designers, but also people working in other fields, including art and interior design.
The S/S 2017 collection looks at yarns inspired by tranquility, harmony and simplicity (Smile, an elasticized cotton yarn with a velvety touch; Shell, a shot cotton fantasy yarn with a textured surface, while Blog, a tribute to the sites that have revolutionised publishing in the last ten years or so, is a round, light and soft padded cotton), denim (Cretonne Smoke, a sculpted cotton sprayed with pigments to give it a firm hand and a dirty denim look; Enim, a binary yarn in which the cotton and nylon structure creates a worn denim look; Mago, a cotton embroidered with lurex studs), vast expanses of water and the creatures living on the bottom of lagoons and seas (take a note because these ones are particularly inspiring - Ora, a semi-shiny, elasticised viscose yarn with a gently crinkled surface resembling alga leaves; Juno, a matte, super-crepe stretch viscose that recalls grains of sand on the ocean bottom), pure nature and fishermen's nets (again take note as this theme led to the creation of interesting yarns with transparent and translucent notes such as Space, a cotton with a shiny nylon effect inspired by the idea of using fishing line for beach clothes; Cedro, a cotton chain with intermittent touches of very fine nylon perfect for organic mesh items; Dado, a flat, mercerised cotton tape that calls to mind the strips of sun-dried algae on the sand), and tribal and primitive inspirations for an artisanal aesthetic (Murales, a raw linen core wrapped in shaded tones of viscose; Groove, a tubular yarn made of cotton and filled with thick, rustic linen and Flora, a shot cotton ribbon-yarn embroidered with metallic lurex threads).
Lineapiù has a line dedicated to individual knitwear enthusiasts entitled Knit Art, but made with the same quality and care employed for the yarns collections designed for Haute Couture purposes.
The Knit Art S/S 2017 collection moves indeed from more or less the same themes, and in particular focuses its attention on nature and natural fibers (Noce, a cut cotton yarn that borrows from the surface of a coconut; Lee, a cotton ribbon yarn with dyed linen inserts for a denim effect; Zenzero, a tape yarn with a sculpted surface and a delicately crepe finish).
Cottons and linens were also reinterpreted in a rough way to imitate the effect of bark, wood shavings (very fashionable considering once again Chanel's Haute Couture S/S 2016 collection…), rope or cork.
The oceans and its creatures remain anyway the key themes for this collection (check out, Corallo a fantasy yarn inspired by anemones and corals where a mercerised cotton ribbon develops into an impalpable tulle, and Nori, a lightweight pure cotton frayed gauze inspired by marine algae).
Though yarn companies in Italy haven't been performing too well in the last few years, Lineapiù registered a +3-4% increase in revenue in 2015 compared to the previous year. Looks like a focus on quality and on creating a strong Research and Development strategy is paying off even in troubled times.
All images in this post courtesy of Lineapiù Italia.
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