Alexander McQueen put on more than his fair share of legendary runway shows before his tragic passing in 2010. But none were so instantly iconic as the late designer’s Spring 1999 womenswear collection, which saw supermodel Shalom Harlow walk out in a crisp, all-white dress that a pair of mechanical robots spray-painted with black and yellow graffiti.
In an unexpected bit of fashion-week theater, Coperni — the buzzy French label co-founded by Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant — paid homage to the historic moment in its own way. On Friday evening in Paris, Bella Hadid closed the French label’s Spring 2023 presentation, with a McQueen-ian twist: Wearing nothing but nude underwear, the model got her one-shouldered finale dress sprayed on in front of the audience.
How, exactly?
According to Vogue Business, the spray-on technique came courtesy of material-science company Fabrican; its a proprietary liquid contains cotton or synthetic fibers suspended in a polymer solution that evaporates when it makes contact with the body. This finale was a long-time coming, as it turns out, with Meyer and Vaillant reportedly working with Fabrican Founder Manel Torres to perfect the spray-on effect over the past six months. It’s an especially fitting technological demonstration for Coperni, which has built a business on ’60s-era retrofuturism since its 2013 launch.
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You can watch the presentation in action below:
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