YouTuber Matthew Trahan has carved out something of a niche for himself as the guy who 3D prints everything. In previous videos, he’s 3D printed various musical instruments, a bunch of stuff for his bedroom, and, um, himself. His latest video finds him moving into the world of fashion to “[take] on Gucci and Louis Vuitton” by seizing the means of production and 3D printing an entire outfit. Does this point to a cost-effective future for DIY fashion?? Trahan’s checklist for this project includes a shirt, a pair of shorts, a pair of shoes, a pair of socks, a belt, a hat, a wallet, a bag, a tie, and some glasses. That’s a lot to get through, and, well, let’s just say that various degrees of success are achieved. You can probably tell from the video thumbnail that this isn’t an entirely serious enterprise: …and that’s before you’ve seen the shorts: Sashay… away © Matthew Trahan / YouTube Here’s the thing, though—while Trahan’s video is ultimately goofy and fun, some of the stuff he prints is actually kind of cool. The shoe design that he uses, for instance, looks like a Nike fever dream, in a good way:
Waveform shoes © Stephen Drunks If you like them, or anything else in the video, all the patterns are available online. Trahan’s technicolor vest, meanwhile, clearly isn’t super practical, and the less said about the shorts, the better. The problem here isn’t so much the medium as the fact that—as he himself admits readily—Trahan has no idea how to make clothing patterns, and it’s interesting to think about how the hexagonal pattern he uses could be put to good use by an actual designer. Project Runway was exploring the idea of incorporating 3D printing into fashion as far back as 2015, and the technology has progressed in leaps and bounds in the decade since Tim Gunn’s band of aspiring designers struggled with the fairly rudimentary devices they were given.
