Noa Raviv's 3D Printed Couture Creations

Noa Raviv is a young designer and artist from Tel Aviv, currently based in NYC. Noa is fascinated by the tension between harmony and chaos, tradition and innovation, sensitively seeking for the perfect balance. She likes to observe and look for the uniqueness and beauty in the mundane and ordinary.

Her ‘Hard Copy’ collection (shown above), created during her time at Shenkar College of engineering and design, uses the classical art and its evolution as the point of departure. “Classical Greek sculpture once represented an ideal vision of beauty,” she says. “Mastering techniques during the eras of ancient civilisations, each composition was able to capture intricate details of the human body – the sinuous curves, the rigid muscles, the small facial features – with primitive means. It was copied and reproduced many times throughout history until it became an empty repetition of style and expression.”

In collaboration with Stratasys, one of the largest manufacturers of 3D printers in the world, Raviv has deliberately developed manipulated digital images with computer modelling software; deformed pieces envisioned by a command that would be difficult for the technology to execute without setting a complex configuration of parameters, components, and codes. “These objects cannot be printed, nor produced in reality. They exist only in the virtual space. The tension between the real and the virtual, between 2D and 3D inspired me to create this collection,” said the designer.

Following this motif, each item is a true representation of an alternate reality presented within the confines of a screen. For example, the grid is a tool used within programs such as rhinoceros, AutoCAD, and illustrator in order to grant designers the ability to understand size, scale, and proportion. Within the context of the collection, the series of criss-crossing perpendicular vectors is referenced by lines of black and white polymers that articulate ruffled and undulating silk and tulle fabrics as they assume shapes similar to the traditional versions of bodices. This is contrasted by accents of orange that decorate the perimeters of the pleated textiles, a characteristic meant to symbolise the action of selecting the edge of a volume or surface in modelling software.

‘Hard Copy’ was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s ‘Manus X Machina’ – Fashion in an age of technology earlier this year.

In her latest collection ‘Off-Line’, Noa Raviv looks to raw, unedited sketches. Unlike her previous collection ‘Hard Copy’, this new series explores the more intimate and less rational parts of the design process.

Raviv regards her notebook as a zone of privacy – one in which she makes mistakes, pursues compulsions, improvisations and experiments without fear of judgement. The designs created within her sketchbook are deeply personal, and free of external evaluation or opinion. It’s here that the most expansive and complicated ideas comes to life in the form of a shaky line or sudden impulse, and it’s this unfiltered, unafraid energy that forms the backbone of Raviv’s ‘Off-Line’ range — her first full collection since relocating to New York City.

Turning immediate unfinished sketches into ready-to-wear garments, the designer creates a selection of sculptural, expressive pieces. Fuelled by impulse, the range is defined by strong, looping lines and fitted shapes. In many cases the artist’s hand can be seen to inscribe the pieces with hastily sketched lines, as strong borders and compelling silhouettes seem to jump from page to cloth. In some cases reserved and in others vibrantly expressive, the clothes carry the visible narrative of carefree doodles and hurried sketches. In the case of one dress, Swarovski contributed their timeless crystals to the design, adding a sparkle of dimension to the casualness of the collection’s messy scribbles.