On Wednesday April 24, the Palais de Tokyo in Paris played host to the seventh edition of the Forum de la mode*, which explored issues relating to the transmission of know-how, training and innovation. Arnaud Vaillant, CEO and co-founder of Coperni, was invited to talk about innovation. The Paris-based ready-to-wear and accessories brand brilliantly transcends the boundaries between design, craftsmanship and technology, all with an undeniable sense of showmanship.
 

A favourite on social media, Coperni has made a name for itself for its spray dress made directly on the body of model Bella Hadid during a fashion show, for having robots from the American company Boston Dynamics posing as models, and for making a silica aerogel bag made of 99% air and 1% glass.
 
“Sébastien Meyer (co-founder and creative director of Coperni) hasn’t read Christian Dior‘s biography, but rather Steve Jobs‘. He likes to create things, which is why we innovate not only with our products but also with our scenography and our communication,” says Arnaud Vaillant.

Every season for the past five years, for example, the label founded in 2013 and relaunched in 2019 has revisited its Swipe bag, an oval-shaped piece with a fairly organic look. The label has offered a version of the Swipe made from fragments of meteorites and another made from blown glass. The latter, more an art object than a bag, has even met with some success. “This bag was worn by Gigi Hadid at the show and then by Kylie Jenner, which helps! But we still sold 300 of them, which is something!” says an amused Arnaud Vaillant. The latest version of the bag, made in Greece by an engineer, is made from silica aerogel, a nanomaterial used by NASA.

Collaborations

 
“Innovation can make people dream, but it can also make them think. But we don’t try everything. For example, we haven’t gone into NFTs. Making real collections with real teams already has a cost.”
 

Reminding us that innovation takes time and does not follow the sometimes frenetic pace of fashion, Coperni likes to collaborate with specialists. One example is its recent alliance with German equipment manufacturer Puma around sneakers, a segment that Arnaud Vaillant believes all designers want to enter.
 
“We worked for a year and a half with the Puma teams, not those dedicated to collaborations, but those dedicated to innovation. That was our wish,” explains Arnaud Vaillant, emphasising that working with specialists saves time.

Coperni is also looking at artificial intelligence (AI) and the many possibilities it offers. “For the robot collection, we had neither the time nor the money to call in print designers, so we worked with Dall-e (an AI image generator) and asked it to create a print showing a robot meeting animals. This print, which belongs to us, was painted directly onto the clothes by a craftsman. It’s a way of bringing together technology and craftsmanship,” explains Arnaud Vaillant.  

The brand, which will present its collection on October 1, promises a crazy but less techy show, “you have to know how to renew yourself”, concludes Arnaud Vaillant.

*The Fashion Forum is organised by the Fédération française du prêt-à-porter féminin (FFPAPF) and the Fédération de la haute couture et de la mode (FHCM), in partnership with Defi, the CTC, Francéclat, the Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty and the Ministry of Culture.