We all know by now that Coperni’s distinct eye for fashion lands somewhere between technology and strange dystopia – for proof, see Bella Hadid’s viral spray-on dress from SS23 or most recently, AW23’s Boston Dynamics mechanical hounds which undressed Rianne Van Rompaey on-stage and snatched Lila Moss’ cute handbag from her arm mid-runway. Carrying the show’s dystopian storyline forward, the French label’s AW23 digital campaign film follows Lila as she carefully explores digital landscapes alongside a curious mechanical robo-dog – a project created in collaboration with experimental creative studio Everest Lab.
Similarly to Coperni’s AW23 runway,Similarly to Coperni’s AW23 runway, Alexandre Silberstein and Florent Canale’s film draws inspiration from Jean de la Fontaine’s 1600’s fable The Wolf and the Lamb [it’s MFW, so we’ll cut it short: a wolf eats an innocent lamb after coming up with fake excuses justifying as to why it should eat it – AKA a 17th century moral lesson about toxic power dynamics]. “By rewriting one of the most popular French fables we are looking for a better balance between the wolf and the lamb allowing everyone to interpret the relationship between humans and technology,” the brand stated in a press release – hinting towards a new, harmonious relationship between humans and technology as seen through the repurposing of the robot dogs which have become commoly used by the US police and army.
Unlike Coperni’s one-off runway moments, however, the 40-second film will play for six months straight – cycling through 320,000 different versions based on multiple choices of terrains, scenarios, and looks from Coperni’s AW23 collection to shape a new form each time. Looped together, the polymorphic clips will be ordered by a host machine and streamed on a dedicated website, as well as Coperni’s YouTube channel and Epic Games’ Unreal Engine.
Meanwhile, topping off the film is meditative music by Anomaly Spectre [which features three main tracks sliced into dozens of differing versions to match each film], time zones synced to represent Paris’ light at time of viewing, and ChatGPT-generated voice overs, each retelling The Wolf and The Lamb in different words. You thought AW23 couldn’t top Bella Hadid’s spray-on dress? Think again.
Watch Coperni's AW23 campaign here.
