Coperni Closes: Revisiting Fashion's Wildest Tech Experiments
Parisian fashion label Coperni ceases operations after unforgettable experiments, including a spray-on dress for Bella Hadid, Boston Dynamics robots, and NASA-inspired aerogel bags.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Paris fashion label Coperni, founded by Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, has ceased operations.
- Iconic moments included spraying a white dress directly onto Bella Hadid in 2023 and featuring Spot robots.
- The brand utilized NASA aerogel to create the 33-gram Air Swipe Bag and built a working CD player purse.
- Final projects included the C+ collection featuring garments embedded with probiotics and prebiotics.
Parisian fashion label Coperni, founded by Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, has officially ceased operations after spending recent years turning radical concepts into wearable objects through collaborations with scientists and engineers.
One of the label's most recognizable milestones took place during its spring/summer 2023 show in Paris, where Bella Hadid stepped onto the runway to have a white dress sprayed directly onto her body. Developed alongside Fabrican—a material technology company founded by Spanish designer and scientist Manel Torres—the liquid used suspended fibers that solidified into a flexible textile as it dried within minutes.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
For its fall/winter 2023 presentation, Coperni brought five Boston Dynamics Spot robots onto the runway to interact with models. One robot gently assisted in removing and returning a model's jacket, while another briefly held a handbag for Lila Moss.
During its fall/winter 2024 show, Coperni unveiled the Air Swipe Bag, developed with artist and researcher Ioannis Michaloudis. The translucent accessory was crafted from silica aerogel—an extremely lightweight solid consisting of roughly 99% air and 1% glass-like material, inspired by NASA's cosmic dust research—weighing in at around 33 grams.
The closure of Coperni highlights the immense financial and operational challenges of scaling experimental material science within the commercial fashion industry. While their runway spectacles captured global attention, the high costs of R&D for tech-infused garments often prove difficult to sustain in mainstream markets.
The brand's technological explorations extended to consumer electronics and manufacturing processes. A 3D-printed handbag functioned as a portable CD player with wired headphones, while the Ariel Swipe Bag for spring/summer 2025 at Disneyland Paris was created using Rapid Liquid Print to extrude blue silicone into a water-based gel bath.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
In 2025, Coperni collaborated with Japanese toy maker Bandai to create the Tamagotchi Swipe Case, housing a functioning digital pet. Their final ventures included the C+ collection released in October 2025, developed with Swiss textile firm HeiQ to introduce garments treated with probiotics and prebiotics activated by body heat and movement.
Source: designboom
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