Video (02:52) : Go behind the scenes in the making of 3D Met Gala dresses in a collaboration by local company Protolabs along with Zac Posen and GE Additive.
Protolabs had a big part of the Zac Posen creations that Katie Holmes, Jourdan Dunn and Nina Dobrev wore to the Met Gala Monday night in New York City.
The prototyping kings worked with Posen and GE Additive to create Dunn's $63,000 3-D printed rose-petal dress, plus pieces of the other costumes for one of New York's biggest fundraisers of the year.
Maple Plain-based Protolabs is better known for its plastic injection molding and metal milling capabilities, but with its 3-D printing business growing, it was able to print the items — including the 21 petals on Dunn's dress — on its stereolithography printing machines.
Each petal, which cost about $3,000 to complete, was bolted to the dress frame until they produced the look of a full flower.
Dunn, one of the world's most in-demand supermodels, strutted the 30-pound gem on the runway for the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Protolabs spokeswoman Sarah Ekenberg called the news "super exciting."
Officials from Posen's shop said the dress could be reconfigured in a longer length featuring 37 petals. That version took 700 hours of 3-D printing time and more than 400 hours of labor.
Gallery: Minnesota's Protolabs hits the Met Gala's red carpet
Also done on Protolabs' machine: the palm leaf collar accessory on Holmes' dress, the headpiece on Julia Garner's costume, the embroidery on Deepika Padukone's sculpted pink dress and Dobrev's bustier (which fashion reviewers raved about). Posen himself wore palm-leaf brooches made on the 3-D printer.
A 30-pound dress doesn't seem so out of the ordinary when you consider Katy Perry wore a dress that was a working chandelier, created by Jeremy Scott for Moschino.
Indeed, designers took to heart this year's theme, "Camp: Notes on Fashion," which was inspired by a seminal 1964 essay by Susan Sontag in which she describes the phenomenon as something that shan't be talked about: "To talk about Camp is therefore to betray it," according to the Associated Press.
Cardi B swept by in a stunning red-quilted dress accentuated with a matching sequin headpiece, feathers and a train that took up much of the pink carpet, and Jared Leto was accompanied by his own (fake) head.
Zendaya, whose Cinderella Tommy Hilfiger dress went aglow with the wave of a magic wand, dropped one of her see-through slippers on the way up the long staircase.
Lady Gaga, one of the hosts, had four outfits for the red carpet.
Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue who masterminds the gala every year, wore a light pink cape with loose ostrich feathers over a matching gown adorned in a flower sequin design. She told waiting reporters this year's theme is anything goes, the Associated Press said.
"I hope they have a lot of fun," she said of her A-list guests. "The more crazy the better."
Includes reporting by the Associated Press Dee DePass • 612-673-7725
