3D Printing Storms London Fashion Week-3DPTimes

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3D Printing Storms London Fashion Week

October 16, 2026 News 9586

On September 27, 2026, designer Susan Fang unveiled her Spring/Summer 2027 collection "AIR-ILLUSION" at London Fashion Week.

The collection blends Chinese ceramics, qipao, florals, and digital design, with Bambu Lab as the official technology partner, supporting 3D-printed footwear, accessories, and invitations.

Inspired by M. Butterfly, the collection explores love, illusion, and reality. Blue-and-white porcelain elements are woven into modern garments, while sheer tulle and feathers create a "floating" visual effect. The traditional qipao is reimagined as a transparent "bubble qipao," paired with Peking opera-style headpieces. Prints appear as botanical landscapes from afar, but up close reveal digital gardens made of ASCII characters.

This time, 3D printing isn't a conceptual gimmick—it's directly involved in production. The porcelain-flower-inspired "neon lace" and pixelated sandals both come from Bambu Lab's H2D printer, whose dual-nozzle system supports multi-material combinations, while the A2L's cutting and drawing functions assist the Air-Puzzle technique. The pixelated sandals show a clear image from certain angles and shift form from others, echoing the "visual illusion" theme. The invitations are also Bambu-printed: the four-leaf clover logo rotates into a heart shape.

The collection also features a collaboration with Crocs on the EchoBlume shoe, with florals built from fractal structures via 3D animation. Beijing jade carver Li Ke contributed jade earrings—broken porcelain is repainted, and shattered jade is reconnected with gold to form new floral jewelry.

From footwear to invitations, 3D printing is evolving from a manufacturing technique into a designer's creative language. Desktop-level machines turn digital models into physical objects quickly, ideal for personalized, small-batch, and complex-structure development. Creative stages like Fashion Week are becoming new windows for additive manufacturing to showcase its design capabilities.