Technology Is All About Timing, Say Coperni Founders – WWD
Wed 19 Jul
Words LILY TEMPLETON
The duo behind Bella Hadid’s viral spray-on dress said designers “have a duty to invent the future.”
Even for such avid technophiles as Coperni cofounders Arnaud Vaillant and Sébastien Meyer, not every new technology is worth adopting.
“We have a duty to invent the future.”
Sébastien Meyer
“We are careful with technology because it’s a big deal,” Vaillant said in an interview with WWD Paris bureau chief Joelle Diderich at WWD’s Tech Symposium. Although they are keen to experiment as soon as possible, the investment for an independent label can be steep in terms of money, time and human resources.
On top of that, there is one parameter no brand can control: timing.
Vaillant gave the example of the heated coats they presented at the beginning of their two-year tenure as artistic directors of Space Age brand Courrèges, which he called “one of the best places to experiment” the connection between fashion and technology, as founder André Courrèges had been an engineer.
While they caught the eye, the coats didn’t catch on commercially. “I don’t think the customer was ready to wear technologic clothes,” he said. “But it’s important to try because one day the consumer will be ready.”
The internet was certainly ready for Coperni, the label behind arguably the most viral moment of 2022, which saw Bella Hadid being spraypainted into a liquid dress on the runway. It had a media impact value of $26.3 million, including $20.9 million on social media, within the 48 hours that followed the spring 2023 show, according to Launchmetrics.
But that moment was seven years in the making, the designers revealed.