A Drive for Fashion: Anouk Wipprecht and the Audi A4 Collection

Some time ago, Audi contacted Anouk to create four individually designed dresses based on the new Audi A4. The Dutch FashionTech designer created, in collaboration with Audi HQ and Philip H. Wilck of Studio Palermo, a futuristic collection that merges the provocative with the practical.

Just like the Audi A4 car works with ultrasonic distance sensors that guide the driver smoothly into a parking spot or dim the headlights when an oncoming car approaches, Anouk’s smart dresses emit an ultrasonic signal to detect approaching forms. The Audi collection completely reflects the cars from Matrix headlines to the grill’s diamond shape.

During the design phase, Anouk and her team had access to the data preparation software Materialise Magics. Highly advanced service bureaus worldwide, as well as 3D printing departments in top automotive, consumer electronics, and aerospace companies, depend on Materialise Magics to carve out a clear competitive advantage for themselves in today’s tough business environment. Anouk is already quite familiar with Materialise Magics. She collaborated with Materialise before when creating the Spider Dress, Synapse Dress, Smoke Dress, and Cirque du Soleil pieces.

Materialise Magics helped to fill in holes in the complex design, fix bad edges and clear out all other defects in the STL files. The dresses were then 3D-printed using laser sintering (SLS) and finished in the Audi garage using both matte and metallic Audi paint, followed by the application of a high-gloss lacquer layer. Mimicking the car. 

“Design techniques develop so rapidly that we constantly question the current state of our tools, our techniques, and processes. In a way that is the task of this kind of software — it checks upon you or looks after you on the things you might oversee when your mind is zoomed in on another task. Software such as Materialise Magics helps out to prepare your file where your own sight, intuition, or calculation is not enough,” explains Anouk Wipprecht.

“Being able to finish the pieces with Audi paint and lacquer was an amazing experience and brings so much more highlight to the shapes and geometries in the collection. This is what collaborations are all about: discovering new methods together while combining your skills,” says Anouk Wipprecht.

Anouk’s Audi A4 collection was unveiled at the Audi City in Berlin. Audi’s new car model with automatically dimming headlights demonstrates Audi’s effort to limit the invasive character of technology. Cars and dresses are no longer passive objects. They interact and connect with society by taking the presence of others into account. As Anouk Wipprecht puts it, “Our technologies finally get a soul.” 

Watch the Audi City unveiling video!

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