Fully wearable apparel was paraded during Tuesday morning's 3D printing festival - the first such festival here.

Held at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), the festival marked the conclusion of two international 3-D printing competitions organised by NTU, in which the top winners in both categories - fashion and abacus-themed - walked away with $10,000 each. The winners of the abacus design section were Xiao Zefeng, Liu Ruicheng, Yang Yongqiang from China, while the winners of the fashion category were a duo from Australia from XYZ Workshop, Lim Kae Woei and Elena Low.

3-D printing is the process of highly customised manufacturing of objects layer by layer based on digital 3-D models. Using plastic as their base material, participants of the competition created butterfly-inspired bodices, skirts, and fashion accessories.

NTU recently announced a new $30 million dollar 3-D printing research centre, which aims to place Singapore at the forefront of 3-D printing technologies.