When we think of clothing made entirely out of metal, our minds can’t help but wander to Robert D Downey Jr. and his sublime rendition of Marvel Comics character Iron Man. Who can blame us? Flying around in a giant iron suit that shoots laser beams sounds like one heck of a good time. However, sometimes iron(and other metals) can be used to achieve more aesthetic goals. That’s right. Here is a bizarre dress made almost entirely from iron, that unfortunately shoots nearly zero laser beams. Runway meets, uh, metal works factory.
As part of Dutch Design Week, artist Jólan Van der Wiel and designer Iris Van Herpen collaborated on a series of extremely fascinating dresses. The fascinating part is that these dresses were more designed by magnetism than by any human design sense. They are pretty much entirely out of iron shavings and magnets. It’s all done using a uniquely designed gravity tool that was thought up by the designers themselves. The magnets, in a way, use this tool to shape the dress to what you see in the photos that accompany this article. Even cooler? The dresses start out molten and then cool over time, leaving plenty of time to be shaped while in their more liquid states. Of course, it must be noted again that these frocks do not shoot laser beams(sigh.)
While these dresses have recently walked the runway, that doesn’t mean you’ll be seeing them on store racks any time. For one, the utter weight of the dresses will probably tear the racks down. For two, they would be really, really expensive. For three, and most importantly, these dresses do not under any circumstances shoot laser beams(drat.)
