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Science Meets Fashion: Bella Hadid’s Spray-On Dress at Paris Fashion Week

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at FSU chapter.

Paris Fashion Week is always buzzing with new ideas and trailblazing concepts, and this year was no exception. The event featured designers from all over the world including Dior, Vetements, Louis Vuitton and more.

One of the most viral events at this year’s fashion week was the dress sprayed onto Bella Hadid’s body by Coperni. Videos of the affair have circulated all over social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram, making it one of the most watched moments of the week.

Videos show Hadid walking onto a platform wearing only nude-colored underwear and standing still as designer Manel Torres uses an airbrush-like device to spray a white, skin-tight dress onto the model. After Torres completes the dress, Charlotte Raymond, Coperni’s head of design, cuts a high slit into the dress and manipulates the sleeves, transforming the design in real-time into an off-the-shoulder, slit dress.

The liquid, called Fabrican, is a mix of natural and synthetic polymers mixed into a liquid solvent which evaporates when it comes into contact with skin. It has a silky appearance when sprayed on, but feels and appears bumpy up close. Once used, the solid can be liquified and reused. Fashion tech company Fabrican Technology has been developing the product since the early 2000s and promotes it for a variety of different uses including oil spill clean-up, fashion and medical uses like casts and hygiene covers. The substance is also eco-friendly and was named by Time Magazine as one of the best inventions in 2010.

This was not the first time Coperni blended tech and fashion for the runway. In April 2022, Doja Cat sported a glass Coperni Swipe bag at the Grammy Award Show Red Carpet, making big headlines at the event. The company is named after mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus, who heavily inspired Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, co-founders of Coperni, though Meyer’s main inspiration is innovation.

The dress cannot be resold as there are no seams and it was made to be skintight on Hadid, however, it will be going on display in Coperni’s showroom. Despite looking taut, the dress’s fabric is slightly stretchy, allowing the wearer to slip out of it while maintaining the structure.

“It’s our duty as designers to try new things and show a possible future,” said Meyer, “We’re not going to make money on this, but it’s a beautiful moment — an experience that creates emotion.”

Hadid herself called the event, “The best moment of [her] life.” Surrounded by a star-studded audience including Kylie Jenner in the front row, and high-ranking models and designers from all over the world, Hadid gracefully kept her composure, despite admitting to nerves before the show.

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