Robot dogs and models take over Paris Fashion Week at Coperni show

How could Coperni top the internet-breaking moment from Paris Fashion Week when they spray-painted a dress in real-time on Bella Hadid during their Spring 2023 show?

With a theatrical performance on the runway featuring robot dogs and models! During Coperni’s Autumn/Winter 2023 (Fall) show at the Paris Fashion Week, designers Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant reimagined the French fable Le Loup et l’Agneau (the wolf and the lamb) by Jean de la Fontaine – with the model representing the lambs and five robot dogs as the wolves. The show was reminiscent of Alexander McQueen’s Spring 1999 show.

While the Bella Hadid performance reminded fashion enthusiasts of the moment when Shalom Harlow – spinning on a wooden turntable – got spray-painted with black and neon-yellow paint on her white multi-layered off-shoulder dress. The robot dogs at the Coperni show reminded netizens of the robots used to spray-paint Shalom.

Coperni staged their Autumn/Winter 2023 show at the Théâtre National de la Danse in Paris. Designers Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant had given the internet its most-viral moment of 2022, and for 2023, they chose robots to top the sensation created by Bella Hadid’s spray-paint dress. Coperni took inspiration from a French fable, making their models take the roles of the lambs and robot dogs as the wolves. One of the wolf/robot dogs took centre stage, pulled off model Rianne Van Rompaey’s jacket and held on to Lila Moss’s mini swipe bag in a choreographed sequence. Later, it returned the bag and the coat symbolising harmony between the two. In the end, the robots took a bow as models walked the finale.

After clips from the Coperni show made it to social media, netizens had mixed reactions. Fashion watchdog Diet Prada also shared a clip from the fashion show and wrote, “Anyone else thinks this @coperni stunt could have gone terribly wrong?” One netizen commented, “I hate these little terror bots.” Another wrote, “I guess it was all in the performance because the dress was anticlimactic.” A user said, “It’s interesting…but McQueen is all I see.” A person remarked, “I watch too much Black Mirror I was waiting for the Robodog to pull out the knife.”

The collection built on Coperni’s techno-chic aesthetic featured signature spandex tops redone in leather, rubber versions of its signature Bridge boot, emoji-inspired silver brooches gathering draped tops and blanket coats. In a note, the designer explained, “This positive and joyful vision of innovation and technology is shared between Coperni and Boston Dynamics. The FW23 collection emphasizes through a show performance the symbiotic relationship between humans and technology and the poetry and imagination that it allows.”