FROM ONE HEIGHT TO THE NEXT
Thu 2 Mar
WORDS Lucy Maguire
PHOTOGRAPHY Erik Faulkner
AHEAD OF THEIR AW23 SHOW, THE COPERNI FOUNDERS SÉBASTIEN MEYER AND ARNAUD VAILLANT REFLECT ON THE GROWTH OF COPERNI AND THE AFTERMATH OF THE VIRAL SPRAY-ON DRESS FROM SS23.
It takes a lot to cut through the noise at Paris Fashion Week, especially as a young brand. But last season, Paris label Coperni went viral, debuting a spray-on dress on supermodel Bella Hadid at the end of its SS23 show. Videos of the moment, in which scientist Manel Torres sprayed his Fabrican textile onto the supermodel on the runway, were shared across the globe, boosting Coperni’s reach even beyond the fashion world and cementing it as one of fashion’s buzziest players.
While SS23 was certainly a crescendo, Coperni is not new to the spotlight. Launched in its current form in 2018 by partners in life and work Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, the label has won legions of young fans with its irreverent and innovative approach to design, more accessible, contemporary price point, and star-studded campaigns and shows. Fans of the brand include Rihanna, Dua Lipa and Kylie Jenner.
Even before SS23, Coperni has pushed boundaries from marketing to design. For AW22, creative director Meyer rendered the brand’s best selling swipe bag in glass, creating a flurry of press attention and an unexpected slew of orders. For SS23, he went even further, rendering the Swipe in solid gold. While in the middle of the pandemic, as brands resorted to videos or lookbooks in lieu of the runway, Coperni took press and buyers to the Accor Arena in electric cars and staged a drive-in runway show. For the pair, their success lies in their understanding: Meyer is a creative director that knows when to compromise and Vaillant is a CEO who knows how to dream.
Now, four months after the spray-on dress moment, the duo are back in Paris, managing their ever-growing business and looking ahead to their much-anticipated next show for AW23.
The Coperni SS23 show was a special moment. Reflecting back, what do you remember about that night?
It was a magical moment that will stick in our memories and hearts for a long time. What struck us the most was that it was a success for the whole team. It was a real team effort and a very human experience. Bella Hadid was exceptional, of course, but everything around her helped make it a unique moment: the music done by Clara 3000; La Mode en Images who did the production; Alexandre Silberstein who knew how to capture the moment with such charm; and especially Manel Torres, the inventor of [the spray-on material] Fabrican, without whom none of this could have ever happened.
How did it feel in the days and weeks after?
We’ve been on Cloud 9 since that day. We’ve received so many kind messages and congratulations. But what touched us the most is that the show has been covered in schools all over the world. It’s great to be able to inspire the younger generation and show them that with hard work, imagination and courage we can create magic. Because what happened at the show, it was magic, almost surrealist. We were even shocked watching from backstage, we didn’t believe it! We were so scared it wouldn’t work.
What have you been up to since, personally and professionally?
We’ve travelled all around the world to meet passionate young people in the fashion industry and share our journey and experiences. We’ve also worked a lot! We finished a pre-collection and started working on the next show. It’s all moving very fast but it’s great – we can’t complain.
We are also preparing to move offices. Coperni has been in the same offices for four years now and the brand is growing really fast, so we need more space. We spent over a year searching for the perfect place and we’re so happy to start this new adventure. Of course, SS23 is now a hard act to follow.
How are you feeling about next season?
We’re trying not to put pressure on it. We’re not playing a game of one upmanship every season, that’s not the idea. But we do want to continue to experiment with powerful moments that link our passions for technology and innovation. The positive response to the last show cemented the idea that we can constantly question ourselves and create newness.
Can you share any plans, references or ideas you’re playing with?
All we can say is, we’re going to do the opposite of what you’d expect.
What’s one lesson you learned in 2022 about running a brand?
Running a brand of this age can be stressful because we’re a small business and the world we live in is so uncertain. In the space of three years we’ve lived through a pandemic, war in Europe and ecological crisis. This climate could discourage us or restrict our creativity. But instead we decided to work even harder, be even more creative and take risks, and it paid off. That’s the lesson we’ve learned this year, always take risks and push yourselves further.
For Coperni, what do you hope for in 2023?
For 2023, we hope to work as we do today, with a familial spirit, surrounded by our friends and the Coperni community, which supports us everyday. We also hope to bring new innovations to life and create stronger bridges between fashion and technology.