Coperni: Futuristic or a Failure?

Graphic by Molly Van Gorp.

Coperni is the hot topic of Paris Fashion Week. Bella Hadid closed their spring-summer show in a dress sprayed on in real-time and modeled immediately after. The dress left the audience in astonishment and dominated headlines almost as quickly as the dress molded to her skin. Although this dress worked as an effective grab for attention, why did it make such an impact? Will the impression last? 

Fashion provides  social commentary, and this collection is no different. However, the show’s impression may be more harmful than inspiring. Perhaps in constructing this striking finale, Coperni will have left the fashion world with more negative implications than positive ones. 

Bella Hadid is one of the biggest models of this generation: she dominated Paris Fashion Week, walking in over 20 shows. It is valuable to question whether it was the dress that captivated everyone’s attention, or merely the body that was wearing it. 

Coperni’s collection was titled “Coperni Femme,” which Vogue deemed an “ode to a reconfigured paradigm of feminity.” Bella Hadid has been deemed one of the most influential and beautiful women in media today. Seeing as she modeled the final and most attention-grabbing moment in the show, it pinpoints her as the standard for this reconfigured idea of femininity that Coperni is attempting to push. This message creates a complicated and perhaps detrimental effect for those who are consuming it. 

Bella Hadid and models who are visually similar to her physique are often criticized for promoting unrealistic beauty standards. Coperni’s show almost exclusively featured models who were tall and thin, which leads the audience to assume that this is the paradigm of femininity that they are attempting to display. Coperni made a deliberate choice to immortalize this dress in a specific body. It is a dress that was made to fit one particular person and one distinct body type. Would the moment have been as poignant if fashioned on another model of a different physique? 

Although the technology, construction and execution of the dress are fascinating, the gown furthered dangerous and unhealthy stigmas surrounding the fashion industry and the future of femininity as an all-inclusive construct. As societal beauty standards progress and become increasingly critical of the way these values are expressed, designers have the responsibility of upholding these newfound constructs and create an impression that will last beyond the body by  which it is displayed. Coperni should be able to make an influential and inspiring impact without compromising the integrity of their brand with diluted and outdated notions of femininity. 

So, how will this moment affect the future of fashion and femininity, and was it worth the risk?