By DIANA CAVAGNARO | Uptown News

The Academy of Our Lady of Peace hosted a STEAM Biodegradable Fashion Show with Julia Daviy on Oct. 31. The event is part of the Architects of Change, a conversation series started by Maria Shriver. The students at the Catholic high school attended one of Shriver’s events and decided to adopt the event at OLP beginning in 2016. Since then, the school has seen an increase in the arts and athletics programs along with STEM-related classes, initiatives and programs.

The event began with a welcome from Brigid Hanczor and Katie Cota. The announcer for the show was Valerie Carrillo. Daviy gave a presentation and fashion show sharing her goal of clean technologies in clothing production, including 3D printing. She is an award-winning, revolutionary, eco-friendly fashion designer and founder of the 3D-Printed Fashion Lab. She showed her first collection last year at NYFW 2018. Her collection was produced on FDM 3D printers and one dress was made on a SLA 3D printer.

After the fashion show, students had a Q&A with Daviy. The facilitators were Wessley Edmonds and Sofia Rojo-Kratochvil. Daviy told everyone that the current business model wouldn’t work anymore. In this fast-fashion era, production needs to be turned around with clean technology and sustainable fashion. She creates each garment digitally with 3D technology leaving zero-waste on a large-format printer here in the U.S. Her 3D-Printed Fashion Lab is the first 3D-printed clothing manufacture model in the U.S.

This inventor and designer has digitally customizable 3D-printed skirts on her website. Customers can go to her website and customize the look they want for the skirt. The Vogue Spring-Summer 2019 Issue put this skirt on the must-have list. In 2019, Daviy was the winner of the 2019 Eluxe Awards as Best Luxury Fashion Brand and also made The Technology Headline’s “Top 10 Fastest Growing Fashion and Apparel Solutions Providers to Watch in the Year 2019.”

Daviy received a Bachelor in Environmental Science and a master’s degree in international economics. She went to the University of Illinois to specialize in 3D printing and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business for specialization in Design Thinking. This education has prepared her to shift the fashion production to a high-tech industry with eco-friendly, cruelty-free, and sustainable-made, fashion that emits almost zero production waste.

The future of fashion is changing rapidly and this cutting-edge fashion show presented garments from her 3D printers and a royal blue dress that was made on a 4D printer. One blouse was a kaleidoscope of color with sleeves constructed of organic silk. A stunning black dress that looked like delicate lace took 80 hours to construct. Alyse Saucedo finished the closing and thanked everyone for coming. For more information about Julia Daviy, visit juliadaviy.com.

— Diana Cavagnaro is an internationally renowned couture milliner based in the historic Gaslamp Quarter. Learn more about our hat designer, teacher and blogger at DianaCavagnaro.com.