Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant: the partnership with Boston Dynamics and robot dogs are the new twist in the collection’s show at Paris Fashion Week
Impressing after sprayed dress: the challenge of Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant
If there is one moment from the Spring Summer 2023 presented in Paris last September that is difficult to forget, it is the sprayed dress by Coperni. Bella Hadid standing still on the runway brought the designer’s instantaneous, creative process to the stage.
Also showing the progress and research that continues to evolve in the field of fabrics. A liquid that in seconds after settling on the model’s body turned into a shiny, latex-like, milky white fabric. Ready to be manipulated for the creation of a slit procured with scissors and fabric crosses for straps. Also featured in the performance are scientists, including Dr. Manel Torres creator of the fabric and leader of Fabrican Ltd.
By showing the direct collaboration between science and fashion through Spray-on fabric, the creative duo also wants to draw attention to the need for new ways to consciously meet consumer demands. Capable of using natural and recycled fibers, this technology makes it possible to make clothes for every body that are reusable and can integrate devices that monitor health.
The collab with Boston Dynamics: dog-shaped robots at Coperni FW 23
Starring in Coperni’s FW23 collection are, this time, Spot® robots from the company Boston Dynamics. A series of these animal shaped robots open the Paris Fashion Week show by stationing themselves on a parterre that seems to be made of wood.
Starting to move and interact with each other they welcome the arrival of the models who parade within the same perimeter. Inspiring this Fall Winter 2023 collection is Jean de la Fontaine’s fable, The Wolf and the Lamb. Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant’s free interpretation involves technology by envisioning a positive, almost utopian vision of the future. In the original fable, the brand explains, questions were raised about the balance of power between groups of humans in society.
Coperni’s actualization, on the other hand, sees a synergy between man and machine, in which there is no dominant and dominated. In particular, Boston Dynamic has always envisioned technology capable of facilitating, supporting, and helping humans. Spot® in fact is used in scientific fields, within critical and risky environments for people, or even in first aid. The future in which technology and humans work together matches the vision of Coperni, which reworks this concept through its performance.
The performance studied for the co-ed Coperni FW23
Despite the presence of these other-than-human beings wandering around scrutinizing audiences and models, the co-ed collection does not go unnoticed. Coperni therefore launches in Paris the men’s collection as well, parading it alongside the brand’s already familiar shapes for women.
For the entire duration of the fashion show human beings and technology meet and, even in a casual way, collaborate. One of the Spot®s grabs a handbag that Lila Moss lightly passes to this one and later gives it back to the model. Then, in a close encounter, Rianne Van Rompaey interacts in an actual show with one of the robots.
They seem to court each other, observing each other from afar and then getting closer, until the robot grabs the outerwear to reveal the dress she is wearing underneath from Fall Winter 2022 by Coperni. In the finale, a collective bowing of the robots closed the show along with the classic passing of the models in line in the Théâtre National de la Danse.
Fall Winter 2023 by Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant
Right from the first look, the creative director pair is keen to put the focus on launching the Coperni man. Opening is a black shaped suit with straight pants and jacket without lapels. Classic shrugs alternate with deconstructed mock blankets that cover almost the entire body.
A series of dresses from black to patterns, simple microdresses or with ruffles or silver pin decorations, with leather inserts but also in the ankle-length version. Then suits with pants and tops declined in the most diverse shapes and materials, unfailing braids and tops in spandex revisited in leather. Bridge boots also return in the rubber version along with new sandals with a rounded toe and bags that take up this structure.
The runway show is an experience – Coperni FW23
In the behind-the-scenes feature published by Vogue, Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant respond to criticisms already made about the previous fashion show regarding the prevalence of performance over the collection.
Their goal is to create a unique and inclusive experience for the viewer, for the moment they focus on the execution, maybe in the future on the evolution of the casting they explain. In the meantime, their collection strongly reflects the theme of collaboration between human beings and technology.
There is a jacket printed with an AI-generated image depicting a robot and a lamb along with a Swipe bag made of a meteorite that struck southern France 55,000 years ago, the creative directors point out.
Plus a dress made with the Les Arts Decoratifs fashion school and a version of the bag almost identical to the purse emoji on the iPhone. The show is not distracting as long as it is consistent with the collection and the brand.
