Remember Bella Hadid’s white dress being sprayed onto her body on the runway? The show that got the entire world talking within minutes became one of the most unforgettable moments in fashion history. The brand behind it was Coperni.

In a heartfelt post on Instagram, the French label announced that it was suspending operations, thanking its team and everyone who had been part of its journey. It is hard not to wonder how a brand so innovative and forward-thinking reached this point. Was this a failure, or the beginning of something new?

I find myself asking these questions because I believe Coperni's founders, Arnaud Vaillant and Sébastien Meyer, have a vision that goes far beyond the conventional standards of what it takes to succeed in fashion.

Pushing fashion forward

Since its founding, Coperni has made headlines with a series of striking innovations. Known for bringing fashion, technology and innovation together, the brand quickly attracted attention on a global scale. Looking back at some of the moments that have defined its identity, we can start with the spring-summer 2023 show, when Bella Hadid appeared in a dress sprayed directly onto her body. It was the moment that introduced Coperni to a much wider audience.

Even if you might hesitate to call the result a dress, it is hard to deny the potential of bringing fashion and innovation together to push the industry forward. Behind the performance was 20 years of research in materials science. The liquid spray contained natural and synthetic fibers, binding agents and polymers. When it came into contact with the air and her body, the solvents evaporated, allowing the fibers to bond and form a surface. What emerged was an actual fabric.

We can certainly debate how practical the material is for everyday wear and large-scale production, or whether the result should be considered a fashion product or simply an impressive performance. But as a designer, I find the possibilities opened up by this experiment exciting and significant either way. It showed just how far our imagination can go when fashion and science come together.

'Copernican revolution'

The name Coperni comes from astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, whose ideas transformed our understanding of the universe. The brand's design philosophy is built around the spirit of innovation associated with his name. Its fascination with science, space and technology is reflected in its very identity. From the beginning, Coperni's gaze was firmly fixed on the future, innovation and the cosmos, with each season bringing new discoveries to captivate fashion enthusiasts.

Clean lines and architectural forms became the brand's signature. Its strongest commercial expression of this design language was the Swipe Bag, introduced in the fall-winter 2019 collection. Inspired by the familiar swipe-to-unlock gesture on our phones, the bag's name and rounded, organic shape offered an ironic take on the brand's relationship with the digital world.

The Swipe Bag was subsequently reimagined in a range of materials, including glass, meteorite and silica aerogel – an ultralight material used in space research to capture stardust and composed of 99% air. One version, known as the Air Swipe Bag, weighed approximately 33 grams. For its Spring/Summer 2024 show, Coperni even presented a functional version of the bag incorporating a CD player.

For its fall-winter 2023 show, the brand brought a different kind of technology onto the runway: robotic dogs developed by Boston Dynamics. The collection was inspired by a contemporary interpretation of Jean de La Fontaine's fable "The Wolf and the Lamb.” While the models represented the lambs, the robots stood in for the wolves. Rather than focusing on a conflict between humans and machines, Coperni wanted to explore the possibility of coexistence.

At a time when advances in artificial intelligence and robotics are raising heated debates, the brand offered an alternative perspective without rejecting technological progress: technology does not have to be our rival; it can become a partner in our creative and production processes.

Still, the robots attracted more attention than the clothes themselves. Fashion shows generate visibility and create images that people want to share on social media, but I sometimes wonder whether the spectacle ends up overshadowing the designs.

Then again, I quickly reconsider that thought, because fashion loves a show. Sometimes, it can only express itself through spectacle. Certain pieces are created as showpieces rather than with commercial considerations in mind. Their purpose is not necessarily functionality but to represent the way a brand thinks. For that reason, I do not believe Coperni's contemporary approach or its spectacular runway presentations played a role in its decision to suspend operations.

Wearable technology

The spring-summer 2024 collection caught my attention for another fascinating reason: the revival of a once-popular cultural movement that had largely disappeared from the runway. The collection brought to mind the boombox culture that emerged on the streets of New York in the 1970s and 1980s alongside hip-hop.

Held at IRCAM, the Paris-based institute renowned for its research into acoustics and music, the show transformed clothing into sound-producing surfaces. Flat speakers, specially developed by technology company Transparent, were integrated into leather jackets and tops. Another technology partner was Humane. Its AI Pin, attached to the models' garments, was an AI-powered device designed to operate without a screen. Equipped with a camera and sensors, it could interpret its surroundings and project information onto the user's hand using a laser.

The brand's latest technological venture, C Carewear, took the relationship between clothing and the human body a step further. Developed in collaboration with Swiss textile technology company HeiQ, the collection featured leggings, bodysuits and tops treated with a synbiotic blend of probiotics and prebiotics. The brand says these ingredients are gradually transferred to the skin through movement, friction and body heat. The idea was to create garments that support the natural balance of the skin microbiome and function almost like skincare products, with Coperni aiming to establish an entirely new category.

Of course, a brand's claims are not necessarily proof of scientific effectiveness. Still, I find the ideas behind these projects and the ways they are brought to life remarkably creative. The excitement surrounding these innovations, especially the collaborations between fashion designers, scientists and technology experts, is hard to ignore. But there is one important question: can such innovations translate into commercially successful products that are capable of keeping the brand afloat?

Playful, beautiful

Another aspect of Coperni's approach to technology that I find particularly interesting is the way it imagines the future without making it seem cold or emotionless. The brand has managed to combine scientific curiosity with a sense of play, bringing innovation and beauty together in the process.

Its spring-summer 2025 show was perhaps one of the best examples of this approach. Held at Disneyland Paris, the first fashion show ever staged at the theme park brought Disney princesses, villains and childhood nostalgia into Coperni's digital universe. For the finale, Kylie Jenner emerged from Sleeping Beauty Castle in a voluminous black taffeta gown, appearing as a dark princess straight out of a fairy tale.

The future is about more than robots, artificial intelligence and new materials. It also has room for childhood memories, playfulness, nostalgia and the ability to dream. Innovation does not always have to serve a purely functional purpose; it can be playful and beautiful, too.

Coperni consistently delivered captivating stories, a distinctive design language and visually striking runway moments. But one question remains: can global visibility and viral success alone keep a brand going in the long run?

Coperni's decision to suspend operations seems to have less to do with creative shortcomings than with financial and management disputes. Tomorrow Ltd., the brand's majority shareholder and international distributor since 2019, collected its sales revenues and was contractually responsible for paying royalties to the brand and covering certain production costs. Marketing is undoubtedly important, but it cannot keep a business running on its own. Cash flow, production, distribution and ownership structures all need to be on solid ground. Just as importantly, founders need to maintain control over the brands they have built.

After canceling its fall-winter 2026 show, Coperni announced that it would suspend operations. I would like to take Meyer and Vaillant's decision to end their statement with the words "See you soon” not as a farewell, but as a sign that this may only be a temporary pause. Coperni may have stepped away from the fashion scene for now, but the question it leaves us with remains:

Will we simply keep imagining the future, or will we find a way to wear it?