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It’s been an exciting month both personally and professionally for Coperni’s co-founders Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant. Not only did the pair, who first met at fashion school before working at Courrèges together, finally get to have their pandemic-postponed wedding in Hydra, Greece, but they got to make their return to the runway, too.
Since the brand’s beginnings in 2013—an idea born in Meyer and Vaillant’s Paris apartment—Coperni has become as synonymous for its playfully subversive separates as it has become for its innovative, futuristic nature. It was an Instagram-first label, after all. So on a sunny Thursday morning in Paris, during the first fashion week since the pandemic began, guests were poised and waiting to see what the French house had in mind for the future.
As attendees arrived at the Paris Event Centre, they found a maze of hemp growing in tall spindly stalks on the makeshift, sand-covered show space. It turns out the set was not only a nod to the duo’s increased focus on sustainability—they revealed backstage they are working with Italy’s Limonta Group on developing hemp-based fabrics—but to the sensuality of summer, which was to be on full display on the runway.
Gigi Hadid kicked off proceedings wearing a low-rise silver sparkly skirt paired with a headline-making tiny orange crop top that wouldn’t be amiss in her Y2K-loving sister Bella’s wardrobe. The sparkles didn’t stop there, either: they were present on bikini bottoms, styled underneath a see-through black floor-length dress with stomach-baring ties at the front, and on a long-sleeve, turtleneck bodysuit.
Keeping to the current trends, many a low-rise piece was debuted, including cargo pants, mini skirts and black trousers complete with silver chains at the hip. The brand’s futuristic DNA was present on tops, lingerie-style dresses and translucent flared trousers which were made from fabric with a metallic-look effect, while one model wore a white mini dress with circular cut-outs paired with platform shoes and leggings made in the same floral fabric and huge oversized eyewear.
In fact, the future was so present in the duo’s design process that the collection was called “Spring Summer 2033,” because “it’s about our hopes and dreams for the future,” Meyer said backstage.
Of course, low-rise, cargo pants and chainlink accessories aren’t futuristic: they were born in the ’90s, where many a designer is taking inspiration from, much to the delight of young millennials and Gen Z. But when paired with Coperni’s textures, fabrics and cuts, the Y2K era seems not only do-able (to the many doubting whether they can, once again, attempt to pull off low-rise), but fresh and new again.
We know what we’ll be wearing to the first truly post-pandemic party—hint: it’s Coperni.
