“Laser Cut Techniques for Fashion Design” Workshop with Myrto Dramountani

Laser cutting is a method of manufacturing that uses a laser to cut fabric and other materials. All of the advantages -– extreme accuracy, clean cuts and sealed fabric edges -– make this method of design very popular in the fashion industry.

I had a privilege of being invited to the workshop of Dubai based fashion designer Myrto Dramountani where she shared her process of creating a dress using laser cutting techniques.

It was a truly informative experience to witness the exciting process of a dress creation which started from designing the pattern in Autocad. Myrto showed different samples of patterns she created for her collections as well.

She also shared what fabrics would be good for laser cut manufacturing – real or faux leather, silk, neoprene and others that will be more difficult to handle -like linen.

Once the pattern of the dress was ready, we got to the most exciting part. The printing! It was a first time I saw the laser cutting machine and I was quite excited to see it burning the little squares on the fabric.

Myrto added that the strength of the laser would depend on the thickness of the fabric and that she would normally test it on the corner of the fabric in order to create accurate cuts. This try and error process allows to be precise and make sure the laser cuts through and does not burn the material.

Laser cutting offers the kind of precision that you’d get if a design were done by hand, but at a much faster pace, making it more practical and also allowing for lower price points.

Some argue that designers who use laser cutting techniques in fashion are less likely to be copied. Why? Well, the intricate designs are hard to reproduce in an exact way and it is hard to recreate an exact pattern of someone else’s design.