Coperni Shuts Down: Bella Hadid's Spray-On Dress Brand

Coperni shuts down, and the fashion internet is in mourning. The Paris label behind Bella Hadid's legendary spray-on dress is done, after its founders announced on Wednesday that Coperni SAS is ceasing operations following a long fight with its majority shareholder and distributor, Tomorrow Ltd.

Co-founders Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant shared the news on Instagram, saying months of effort had not saved the business. According to Fashion Times, the designers wrote, "We have tried everything." For a brand that built its name on futuristic stunts that went viral, the ending is oddly quiet and very sad.

Why Coperni shuts down now

The short version: money stopped flowing. Tomorrow, a London wholesale platform, had been Coperni's exclusive distributor and majority shareholder since twenty nineteen. It collected the revenue and was supposed to pay royalties and reimburse costs like runway shows and campaigns back to the brand.

According to Vogue, the founders told Vogue Business in a personal memo that they could not fix an ongoing dispute over unpaid sums. Coperni claimed Tomorrow stopped paying its revenue share and reimbursements, which made it impossible to fund the design studio.

The warning signs were public. Coperni pulled out of the Fall twenty twenty-six Paris Fashion Week calendar, and in June a Paris commercial court placed the company under protection so it could keep operating. Fashion Times reports that French records show the case moved to judicial liquidation on the twenty-ninth of October.

The ownership mess behind the scenes

The plot thickened in March, when Italian holding company Progetto 11, the parent of e-commerce firm The Level Group, bought Tomorrow. Progetto 11 later said it had inherited a business already facing disputes over ownership and governance, plus funding problems.

That gives the story two sides. The founders blame unpaid money. The new owner points to a mess it says it walked into. According to TheIndustry.fashion, Meyer and Vaillant tried to buy Coperni back from Progetto 11 after the sale, but the standoff never got resolved.

Tomorrow's other labels include Martine Rose and Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, so the fallout may not stop with Coperni. Nothing is confirmed on that front, and it is worth watching how the platform's other brands respond.

The dress that broke the timeline

If you were online in twenty twenty-two, you remember it. On the thirtieth of September that year, Bella Hadid walked out at Paris Fashion Week in nude underwear while technicians sprayed liquid onto her body. It dried into a white dress, which was then tailored on the spot into an off-the-shoulder look with a thigh slit.

The fabric came from Fabrican, a spray-on textile technology developed by Spanish scientist Manel Torres. It was part science demo, part performance art, and entirely made for screens. It turned a niche Paris label into a household name overnight.

Coperni kept leaning into the weird. Its curved Swipe Bag later appeared in a version made from silica aerogel, a super-light material linked to space research. Robot dogs strutted at its shows, and Kylie Jenner closed the spring and summer twenty twenty-five presentation at Disneyland Paris in October twenty twenty-four.

What happens next for the founders

Meyer and Vaillant first started Coperni in twenty thirteen, paused it while they were artistic directors at Courrèges, then relaunched it in twenty eighteen. The label was known for sharp tailoring, tech-forward accessories and shows built like short films.

In their farewell, the pair thanked their teams, partner factories and everyone who wore the clothes. "Coperni existed because of you," they wrote, and signed off with "See you soon." They did not announce a new project, and it is unclear what happens to the brand name, leftover stock or customer orders.

For Gen Z, this stings because Coperni proved fashion could be playful and weird while still being wearable internet history. It is also a reminder that even the most viral brand can be brought down by boring problems like distribution contracts and cash flow. Browse more on GenZ NewZ as this story develops, and keep an eye out for whatever Meyer and Vaillant do next.