Design Your Own Laser-Cut Dress [Instructables How-To]

Brazilian fashion designer Jum Nakao might be most well-known for his notorious Spring/Summer 2004 laser-cut paper collection that utilized almost a ton of paper, took 700 hours to construct, and was shredded on the runway before the audience’s eyes. Nakao had noble reasons for destroying the collection: “It shows people that their values need to be reanalyzed, that materiality doesn’t matter. That is why we destroy everything, to show that there is something more important, something much more lasting than what people see and value at first sight.” But, we think not every thing of beauty needs to be destroyed. In this week’s Instructables How-To, we’ll show you how to add laser-cut detailing to your own dress, whether you’re walking down the runway or not.

After you design or select the dress/garment you want to add laser-cut detailing to, you need to sketch out the design and convert to a vector file in Adobe Illustrator. This will smooth out the curves of your sketch and make your shapes more symmetrical and geometric.

Then measure and line up the graphic design on the dress. Most laser cutters will be smaller than your garment, so make sure to plan out precise rectangles that match up to the size of the laser cutter’s bed. You will also need to construct a cardboard frame that will hold the dress in the laser cutter, protecting it from smoke and discoloration.

Then comes the fun part… letting the machine run its magic. The designer used an Epilog Legend laser cutter. You will have to install an application that shows the laser cutter how to interpret your design, but as the machine’s website says, “If you can print the image to paper, you can print to the laser.”

Finally, clean up your design with a razor blade or X-Acto knife, and file off any extra threads or bits of material.

Visit the Instructables How-To for further instruction, more detailed photographs, and tips on where to buy materials. If you’re more interested in paper fashion, check out this Instructable on how to sew a dress made from newspaper.