Haute couture made its debut in 1858 with Charles Frederick Worth's iconic House of Worth. Since then fashion's historical timeline has influenced architects and designers in numerous ways. Fast forward to 2018, this relationship with architects has not faded. Zaha Hadid and Neri Oxman, for example, have used fashion as another element to display methods of architectural practice. With the evolution of the 3D printer, creating mesmerizing shapes and forms has allowed for the possibilities of fashion to transform into something more than just a pretty dress.

Acclaimed Dutch designer, Iris Van Herpen, blends fashion, science, and technology to create rhythmically stunning works. High fashion and the art of 3D fabrication is becoming more and more prevalent on the runway, and Van Herpen's Syntopia is no exception. In collaboration with Studio Drift's kinetic installation, In 20 Steps, the glass sculptural piece accompanies Van Herpen's collection down the runway. Mimicking the movement pattern of a bird in flight, each dress is digitally designed, draped and woven together using a variation of laser-cutting techniques, parametric filing, and layering. As the models and their flowing gowns move down the runway, Studio Drift's  overhead instillation begins to oscillate creating a beautiful effect of continuous movement.

"For this collection I looked closely at the minutiae of bird flight and the intricate echoing forms within avian motion. The artists Studio Drift and the scientist Etienne Jules Marey inspired me to look more closely at the draping of a garment through chronophotography. By slowing down time into split seconds I started breaking down the usual draping of fabric, to then layer the milli-seconds all slightly shifted, like the layering of a bird's feather."

Designers like Van Herpen, Oxman, and Hadid have influenced many to see fashion not only as a superficial product that is free of context, but as an expressive tool to propel both practices. Students from SCI-Arc's Architectural Technology EDGE program, Laure Michelon and Silvia Nanu, took inspiration from designers like Iris Van Herpen and Alexander McQueen too create their own versions of fashion blending with architecture.

"Our class stemmed from learning how to code and work with the Robot House at Sci-Arc. We needed to come up with a final deliverable that would help us learn how to use the robots and work through the process of coding for them" Michelon and Nanu explains. "We were aiming to find ways and solutions to 3D print directly on the mannequin. Along with our inspirations, these techniques also influenced the figure forms of our project, Armor." When asked where digital fabrication will take fashion and architecture both stated, "It will allow for more design options and alternatives in both fashion and architecture. The robots can allow for precision and optimization in new materials and discovering geometries. The robots are a supportive tool to approach this exploration."

From the runway to the architecture studio, new design techniques are being explored thanks to digital fabrication and other sciences. Many may have their own ideas of whether fashion should stick to its traditional approach, however, Van Herpen explains that although fashion innovation is based on traditional craftsmanship, designers no longer live in the machine world but in the era of technology. Van Herpen's first exposure to 3D print designs was during the creation of a dress inspired by the new Stadelikj Museum. "I came up with a design that I had no idea how to make by hand. In the architecture, a lot of work was done with 3D printing, including for prototypes, so I looked for it in that corner." Trailblazers such as Iris Van Herpen use their passion for innovation to continuously show where new techniques are available and what is possible.