--- description: Starting with the 2016 Met Gala, whose theme was Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology title: How 3D Printing Is Revolutionizing the Fashion Industry image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bb8e8d407344c6b/698891f42dce0153429e8ef2/3d-print-fashion.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # How 3-D Printing Is Revolutionizing the Fashion Industry by [Joyce Lee](/author/joyce-lee/) and [Anne Most](/author/anne-most/) Updated: Dec 13, 2023 1:14 PM CUTPublished: May 3, 2016 11:18 AM CUT  by [Joyce Lee](/author/joyce-lee/) and [Anne Most](/author/anne-most/) Updated: Dec 13, 2023 1:14 PM CUTPublished: May 3, 2016 11:18 AM CUT This year’s Met Gala theme, Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology, captured the excitement over the future of hi-tech fashion. With new designs emerging regularly ([from crystal dresses](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiFIx4ZkRDM "undefined") that can be controlled by remote controls or [dresses that change clothes](http://www.mfa.org/news/techstyle "undefined")), people have begun to dream of a hi-tech fashion future. One where we might be able to print our clothes at home just before we go out or wear garments that could reflect our mood, even. But that future is far off, according to Bradley Rothenberg, co-founder and CEO of nTopology. Rothenberg is an engineer developing software to help others build better 3-D printed parts. He’s worked with fashion designers in the past, providing the geometric shapes that fashion designers used to print their creations. 3-D printing could be revolutionary, said Eric Wilson, fashion news director at InStyle magazine, just not in the way we’d expect it to be. Watch the video above to learn about the future of fashion. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4315311/how-3d-printing-is-revolutionizing-the-fashion-industry/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4315311/how-3d-printing-is-revolutionizing-the-fashion-industry/"},"headline":"How 3-D Printing Is Revolutionizing the Fashion Industry","datePublished":"2016-05-03T11:18:29.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T13:14:21.000Z","description":"Starting with the 2016 Met Gala, whose theme was Manus x Machina: Fashion in the Age of Technology","url":"https://time.com/4315311/how-3d-printing-is-revolutionizing-the-fashion-industry/","keywords":["Tech","fashion","Clothes","Met Gala"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bb8e8d407344c6b/698891f42dce0153429e8ef2/3d-print-fashion.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joyce Lee","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joyce-lee/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Anne Most","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/anne-most/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3bb8e8d407344c6b/698891f42dce0153429e8ef2/3d-print-fashion.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"3d-print-fashion","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4315311/how-3d-printing-is-revolutionizing-the-fashion-industry/","name":"How 3-D Printing Is Revolutionizing the Fashion Industry"}}]}] ```