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The future is here! Just picture this: you wake up in the morning, begrudgingly wiping your eyes from the remaining sleep, cursing whoever thought that working 9–5 was a great idea, but at least you don’t need to worry about what you’ll be wearing! Just grab a can off the shelf and spray your outfit right on!
Well, maybe the future isn’t that close just yet, but the dress that was sprayed on and designed on supermodel Bella Hadid during Coperni’s fashion show on Friday has made headlines, going viral nearly as quickly as the spray-on fabric settled onto her skin.
No one would dare to disagree that Bella looked anything other than stunning, yet the questions that came after the show permeate the minds of many: how was this possible; is this sustainable; how would this have looked on someone with a not-so-modelesque body? Although all these questions are valid, let’s dive into the first question—the science behind the viral white dress!
More info: Instagram-Coperni | Instagram-Bella Hadid
Paris Fashion Week saw an incredible show of innovation and passion for fashion last Friday during Coperni’s Spring/Summer 2023 collection’s ending display.
Bella Hadid, the 25-year-old supermodel, turned heads as she walked out in the nude, covered by only a nude thong. She stood on an illuminated pedestal where two men took to crafting a pure white dress right on her body.
In about 9 minutes, Bella’s body was engulfed in a light layer of fabric. Once the fabric had a second to settle, Coperni’s Head of Design Charlotte Raymond came up to wipe off the excess and shape the dress into its final form. Lowering the shoulder straps, cutting the bottom to mid-calf length, and adding a slit on Bella’s left leg, Charlotte completed something that was out of this world.
The segment was not previously rehearsed with Bella due to her Paris Fashion Week schedule, adding to the magic, as well as showing off the professionalism of the dress’s engineers, the designers, and Bella herself. The night before the show, a model stood in for Bella, but she couldn’t control her shivering on the chilly runway as the cold material hit her skin.
“I was so nervous,” Bella said backstage, as it would have been her first experience being sprayed. But she didn’t let it show. She was steely and delicate, occasionally raising her arms above her head with an elegant flair, or offering a little smile at the people working on her. “I kind of just became the character, whoever she is.”
Wasn’t it cold up there? “Honey, cold is an understatement,” Bella said, as reported by the NYTimes. “I really blacked out.” Yet as soon as she left the runway, she felt like the performance had been a “pinnacle moment” in her career.
“I think that was the best moment of my life,” she told crew, friends, and fellow models, such as Kylie Jenner, who had gathered to congratulate Bella and touch the alien dress on her body.
Let’s dive into the science behind the dress. Partnering with Doctor Manel Torres, Founder and Managing Director of Fabrican Ltd, they utilized a spray-on fabric that, once sprayed, dries to create a wearable, non-woven textile. It can be made using different types of fibers: from natural to synthetic, including wool, cotton, nylon, cellulose, and carbon nanofibers.
Based in London, at the London Bioscience Innovation Center, Doctor Torres has been working on this multifaceted piece of technology since 2003. A liquid suspension—a finely distributed solid in a liquid, which is not dissolved—is applied via spray gun or aerosol to a surface, creating a fabric. The cross-linking of fibers, which adhere to one another, creates an instant non-woven fabric.
The future-forward invention may be used for more than just creating intricate fashion; they believe it can revolutionize multiple industries. As stated on BBC’s The Imagineers, the fabric is sterile and thus can be made into bandages. It can be made to set hard and, thus, could be used as a cast for broken bones. But perhaps most crucially, the fabric absorbs oil, and so it could be used to clean up after oil tanker disasters.
Multidisciplinary and innovative, it’ll be interesting to see how far this technology can go.
“We wanted to dedicate this moment to Dr Torres, because we respect what he does so much,” explained Arnaud Vaillant, the co-founder of Coperni. “We felt that it was absolutely necessary that he led the performance—to us, that makes the experience even more magical.”
Whilst in pictures the dress looked to be made of a kind of silk or cotton, those who got close enough to touch it discovered that it felt soft but elastic, bumpy like a sponge. According to Arnaud, the dress was taken off like any other tight, slightly stretchy one: a process of peeling off and shimmying out. It can be hung and washed, or put back into the bottle of its original solution to regenerate.
Coperni does plan to display it in its showroom as a piece of history.
Coperni is an ultra-modern Parisian ready-to-wear and accessories brand designed by Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant. Established in 2013, the pair have been on a mission to find the intersection between fashion and technology, “marrying exhaustive origami-like technique with a neat, ‘sportif’ silhouette.”
For the brand’s Spring/Summer 2023 collection, they decided to push the boundaries of fashion technology even further. “It’s our celebration of women’s silhouettes from centuries past,” Arnaud said, as reported by Vogue. “And we wanted to update our aesthetic in a more grown-up and scientific way, too,” added Sébastien.
The show, held in the Salle des Textiles at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris, featured 38 ready-to-wear designs and accessories, which played with historical proportions and themes. From exaggerated hips to squared and bulging shoulders, from daring and revealing cuts to excessive draping and padding, the pieces united the past with the present, showing a potential future.
It isn’t surprising that the moment has gone completely viral. As Jessica Testa noted, it combined “many of the internet’s favorite things,” including a nearly-naked supermodel and 1990s fashion nostalgia.
It has also been compared to Lee Alexander McQueen’s Spring 1999 show, where two robots spray-painted a dress worn by Shalom Harlow. Although similar, the Coperni designers deny any homage or link to the late designer, with Arnaud stating that this was “totally different.”
Sébastien explained to Vogue, “it’s our duty as designers to try new things and show a possible future. We’re not going to make money on this, but it’s a beautiful moment—an experience that creates emotion.”
Nothing happens without reason, so what could have been the message of this piece? It seems that the point of the dress was the drama of its creation. A moment for the fashion history books; a body immortalized in clothing. And not just any body.
Remembering the theme of their show, it can be argued that they had picked the one model who has been praised and hailed as one of the most beautiful women of the present day, thus eternalizing her beauty for future generations to look back on as a part of history.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below: did you enjoy the show or did you think it was redundant and fleeting? Don’t forget to upvote and follow the author; your support means a lot! Hope y’all have a great day!
Bored Panda has reached out to Fabrican and Coperni for comment.
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Egle is a Content Creator at Bored Panda, specializing in Good News. She has a First-Class Bachelor's Degree in Film and Creative Writing from the University of Essex, and has studied subjects such as Propaganda & Film, Sci-fi Writing, Psychiatry & History of Mental Illness, and more. Previously a Senior Video Editor, she is now pursuing Writing as her main interest. Alongside this, she is a passionate artist and painter, as well as a creator on TikTok. She enjoys baking, learning new languages and watching True Crime documentaries on Netflix. If you enjoy happy, inspiring, and heartwarming content, give her a follow! You can also reach her at egle.radziute@boredpanda.com
Trust me when I say this: you DO NOT want to see me dressed with spray-on anything.
Same. And that was my thought, too. Like, I know it was an art piece and the tech is cool, but what if you don't want your clothing to be that fitted? What if you want the fabric to drape? And why do I immediately think of silly string?
There's a pretty easy answer to all those what-ifs, you realize 😅 just don't get a spray on dress 🙄 it's an option, not a mandatory upgrade.
I love the glee she shows with her smile at the end.
Article stated: ..." the dress was taken off like any other tight, slightly stretchy one: a process of peeling off and shimmying out."
Trust me when I say this: you DO NOT want to see me dressed with spray-on anything.
Same. And that was my thought, too. Like, I know it was an art piece and the tech is cool, but what if you don't want your clothing to be that fitted? What if you want the fabric to drape? And why do I immediately think of silly string?
There's a pretty easy answer to all those what-ifs, you realize 😅 just don't get a spray on dress 🙄 it's an option, not a mandatory upgrade.
I love the glee she shows with her smile at the end.
Article stated: ..." the dress was taken off like any other tight, slightly stretchy one: a process of peeling off and shimmying out."
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