October 2022
Parisian fashion brand Coperni used Fabrican's atomizable liquid fiber to spray a dress on a model during its Spring Summer 2023 show at Paris Fashion Week.
The Coperni show took place at Salle des Textiles at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris on Sept. 30, and a white dress was sprayed live onto the body of model Bella Hadid.
Coperni collaborated with Fabrican to spray a dress on a model live on the catwalk
For the final look, Hadid entered the Salle des Textiles in nothing but flesh-colored underwear. Hadid approached a lit platform surrounded by a team of people with spray guns, where she remained for 15 minutes while the Fabrican team sprayed a white substance on her body to form the outline of a dress.
The material used to create the dress was developed by Fabrican, a technology company founded in 2003 by Spanish scientist and fashion designer Manel Torres.
The liquid polymer material was sprayed onto Bella Hadid's body
Fabrican's spray-on fabric is a liquid consisting of natural and synthetic fibers, such as wool and mohair, cotton, nylon and cellulose, depending on the desired feel, suspended in a polymer solution. The liquid solution is sprayed onto the body with a spray gun, which then evaporates when it comes in contact with a surface to form a non-woven fabric.
After the shape of a dress was sprayed onto Hadid's body, a Coperni employee began cutting and altering the white dress, shortening the length, adding a slit and draping the straps from Hadid's shoulders before she then walked across the room.
They sprayed the outline of a dress
The material is said to have a suede-like texture and can be used to make, adjust and repair clothing, while also being strong enough to be worn and washed again.
After the show and over the weekend, clips from the show created some viral moments. According to WWD, the media impact of the event in the 48 hours following the show was measured at $26.3 million, of which $20.9 million was attributed to social media.
This data came from Launchmetrics, a proprietary algorithm software that assesses the monetary value of online posts, social media interactions and articles.
Because of its virality, many people associated the event with Alexander McQueen's spring-summer 1999 collection, in which two robotic arms aggressively sprayed green and black a white cotton dress worn by model Shalom Harlow spinning on a platform.
The material evaporates when in contact with a surface, forming a non-woven fabric
However, the construction and deconstruction of garments on the catwalk is not an unfamiliar stunt.
Coperni's closing event drew parallels to other fashion moments, such as Hussein Chalayan's Spring Summer 2016 show, where falling water dissolved garments on the models' bodies to reveal the dresses underneath, Martin Margiela's Spring Summer 2006 colored ice cube accessories that colored garments as they melted, and Fredrik Tjærandsen's graduation collection of giant balloons that deflated on the catwalk to become garments.
Bella Hadid walked the catwalk after the dress was altered on stage
Commenting on the show, fashion critic and Harper's Bazaar news director Rachel Tashjian wrote that 'this was a gimmick, and nothing more.'
Hadid wrote in a captioned Instagram post, detailing that there was no rehearsal, that she was 'still speechless.' Others flocked to social media to express their testimony of 'fashion history.'
Photography is courtesy of Coperni
Reference(s).. www.dezeen.com