Bella Hadid and Coperni just merged science and fashion, and it was incredible. On Coperni’s Sept. 29 Paris Fashion Week show, the brand's finale caused fashion fiends all over the world to drop their jaws in disbelief while Bella Hadid and a handful of scientists blew Fashion Week expectations out of the water.
As Bella Hadid slowly entered the Coperni runway with a solemn face and next to nothing on her body, she officially sealed her deal as one of the most awe-inspiring supermodels of all time. While this moment was indeed career-defining, it cannot be credited to just Bella alone. The scientists from the London-based company, Fabrican Ltd, created by Manel Torres in 2003, are responsible for the mind blowing event too.
Coperni’s creative director Sébastien Meyer has never been shy about admitting his love for the marriage of fashion and science, so this collaboration was pleasantly unexpected while also making perfect sense. It took less than 10 minutes for Bella Hadid to go from nearly naked to walking the runway in a magnificent off-the-shoulder white dress that came from nothing more than a can.
The materials used to make the dress are liquid fibers which is more easily known as liquid fabric, or ‘fabric in a can.’ The fibers are held together by polymers and additives which then evaporate when they hit surfaces, in this case Bella Hadid’s body. This technology is not just incredible to look at, but it is also environmentally safer than usual fabric production and is now being looked at for more important uses than just a fashion lover's enjoyment. Rather, it is used medically for casts or custom implants. Manel Torres’ creation was magical from the jump, but the fashion week performance just put fabrican on the radar for many more potential uses; fashion devotees can only hope this means seeing more of this on the runway.
While the spray-on dress has been and continues to be carefully dissected by scientists near and far, pop culture has done nothing but eat this experience up and we have loved every second of it. Fashion critics are obsessed and nobody can possibly blame them. The second Bella Hadid stepped naked onto that runway fashion lovers went insane, and not a soul has calmed down since.
While the official ending of fashion weeks around the world is a melancholy time for us all, the spray-on dress will continue to be discussed until our next glimpse of designer fashion datamatics. The future of fashion is – as always – unknown, but nevertheless very bright. Bella Hadid, Coperni and fabrican just changed the game as well as raised everyone's standards. What could be more exciting than that?
