Designer Francis Bitonti's Brooklyn studio is an airy space filled with dress forms and lacquered desks piled with books. At first, it looks every bit the traditional atelier. But then you notice a cluster of MakerBots, each glowing purple and constantly printing, fed by spools of filament. Intricate 3D-printed models cover the tables: bowls that look like branches, sculptures like ice crystals, tiny, gemlike cubes.

This is the future of fashion, according to Bitonti. 3D printers are giving way to a new aesthetic in haute couture: algorithmic garments and accessories that proudly display their origins in tech.

"Technology redefines material as information, as data," Bitonti says. With 3D printers in homes, "consumers are becoming producers."

Bitonti's Cloud Collection debuts Friday, April 4. The capsule collection offers four decorative housewares, or rather, the code for them. By modifying one aspect of the code, consumers can decide how much noise or relief appears on the surface of a vase, for example, resulting in a customized purchase.

The Cloud Collection is aimed at the masses. Consumers can download the code for $1, but non-MakerBot owners must pay extra to print from 3D Hubs, which have partnered with Bitonti for the line.

"We tried to make something where the consumer could engage in the narrative of the object and be part of the design, but not necessarily have to become the designer," Bitonti says.

Image: Andrew Tingle

The result of code as couture is visually stunning: delicate architectures that couldn't be made by hand or even injection-molded out of plastic.

His most famous project is the Swarovski crystal-encrusted, 3D-printed gown that debuted on curvaceous burlesque icon Dita von Teese March 2013. He collaborated with costume designer Michael Schmidt and 3D printing market Shapeways. Bitonti has since constructed the Bristle Dress and the Verlan Dress, two sculptural garments printed with MakerBot's flexible filament, which fall somewhere between designer duds and architectural marvels.

In concert with the Cloud Collection, Bitonti is releasing a line of haute couture accessories that merge traditional textiles with 3D-printed embellishments. The strategy incorporates materials that technology can't yet print.

"It's kind of trying to create a hyper-luxury, or a post-human luxury, that will take us beyond our own capabilities," he says.

Bitonti envisions 3D-printed couture branching off into two enterprises: the mass-production model, where any consumer can become a maker at a low cost, and the luxury model, where high-end garments are created using 3D printing processes, in addition to luxury materials.

Bitonti predicts code will compete alongside couture for the fashion industry's profits, just as an album is now sold on iTunes instead of as a physical object.

But he might be a little too ahead of the curve, says Liz Bacelar, founder of fashion technology incubator Decoded Fashion. For fashion designers, she explains, the design process doesn't end with the sketch — which, in 3D printing terms, could be compared to the code.

Image: Mashable composite. Chris Vongsawat, Dan Lecca

"Selling code is not something that sounds inviting to designers," she says. "It's like you're selling the sketch but letting go of how it's produced. Designers spend so much time selecting the right material, deciding how it's going to be stitched, how it's going to be cut. To let that all go is incredibly scary." By selling code rather than a finished garment, Bacelar says, "you're pretty much [reducing] an artist like Zac Posen to a sketch artist."

Still, Bacelar agrees that code will become a part of the fashion industry's DNA. As materials improve, she says, the market for 3D-printed couture will only expand. She predicts we'll have to wait another three years before 3D printing materials will take on the look and feel of fabric. Bitonti gave Mashable a similar estimate.

"With 3D printing," Bacelar says, "I've never seen something that is so inspiring and so scary at the same time."

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