French fashion brand Coperni is ceasing operations. On November 4, co-founders and creative directors Arnaud Vaillant and Sébastien Meyer announced the decision in an official statement.
“Despite all our efforts, we have been unable to find a solution, and have therefore made the difficult decision to cease Coperni’s operations,” the designers said.
The decision follows a prolonged dispute with Tomorrow, the company’s majority shareholder and exclusive distributor. According to the founders, the disagreement involved, among other things, unpaid amounts. Earlier, in June 2026, Coperni had already sought court protection in Paris in an attempt to preserve the possibility of continuing its business.
Over the years, Vaillant and Meyer have turned Coperni into one of the most recognizable names in contemporary French fashion. Their collections brought together minimalist design, technological experimentation and theatrical runway presentations that regularly pushed the boundaries of the traditional fashion show.
As the brand comes to an end, we look back at three collections that offer a glimpse into Coperni’s creative approach.
Spring/Summer 2023
This was the collection that brought Coperni international attention. The highlight of the Paris Fashion Week show came when a dress was created directly on Bella Hadid’s body. Scientists sprayed the model with a special liquid solution developed using Fabrican technology. Within minutes, the material transformed into fabric, allowing the designers to shape a dress in front of the audience.
But the collection was about more than just this performance. It also featured dresses embellished with thousands of glass elements, deconstructed silhouettes and a reimagined version of the brand’s signature Swipe bag, crafted from solid gold. Coperni demonstrated how technological experimentation could become not just part of the production process, but the centrepiece of a fashion show.
Fall/Winter 2023
For the following season, the designers continued exploring the relationship between fashion and technology. This time, the runway featured five Spot robotic dogs developed by Boston Dynamics.
The show was inspired by Jean de La Fontaine’s fable The Wolf and the Lamb, which the designers reinterpreted through the interaction between humans and robots. In one of the show's moments, a robotic arm removed a blanket from model Rianne Van Rompaey before placing it back over her.
The collection itself featured garments decorated with illustrations from the fable, unconventional bag shapes, outerwear made from recycled nylon and accessories, including a Swipe bag incorporating fragments of meteorite. Once again, Coperni turned the runway into a space for exploring the future, this time focusing on the relationship between humans and machines.
Fall/Winter 2024
For Fall/Winter 2024, Coperni turned to science fiction and the aesthetics of outer space. The show resembled a setting from a film about extraterrestrial civilizations: a massive black obelisk dominated the space, while models walked in metallic fabrics, UFO-inspired silhouettes and accessories with futuristic details.
One of the season’s most notable experiments was the Air Swipe Bag, a new interpretation of the brand’s signature bag created in collaboration with researcher and artist Ioannis Michaloudis.
The accessory was made from silica aerogel, an exceptionally lightweight material composed of approximately 99% air and 1% silica. The bag weighed just 33 grams.
The collection was another example of Coperni’s approach to fashion at the intersection of science, technology and design, turning experimental materials into objects of desire.
