All About Fabrican and Bella Hadid’s Shining Moment at Paris Fashion Week
In case you missed it, Coperni made fashion history during their finale at Paris Fashion Week. Model Bella Hadid walked out to the middle of the room in only underwear, where she then patiently stood as artists sprayed her with a material that instantly turned to fabric. The entire spraying process took around 9 minutes, and after they finished, a designer cut a slit up the side and pulled the shoulders down for a slinky fit. The result was a breathtaking dress, in which Hadid then walked the room, showing off how the material, which started as a liquid, was now a fitted dress moving with Hadid.
Dr. Manel Torres founded Fabrican Limited in 2003. The original purpose of the research that led to the spray-on fabric was for the fashion industry, but the technology is so cutting edge there are demands for the product in other areas such as medicine or the automotive industry, and Fabrican even has some environmental benefits. Torres wanted to create a product that eliminated the slow process of creating clothes in the fashion industry. The Coperni finale definitely showed off the fact that the slow, tedious practice of making designer clothes can be eliminated with Fabrican technology. Additionally, Torres wanted to create a comfortable sort of second skin that looked like that of regular clothes. The fabric is made from fibers that bind together with polymers and biopolymers, which then adhere to the surface on which it is sprayed. Greener solvents then make the liquid evaporate when it hits the surface. The fact that Hadid was immediately able to walk the runway after the dress was sprayed onto her is further proof of how successful Fabrican was in creating the product it set out to achieve.
While this moment was, in fact, revolutionary, it is not the first time the fashion world has seen a stunt like this one. In 1999, Alexander McQueen created a look that involved robots spray painting the model’s dress on the runway. The model started out in a white strapless dress and was then painted with black and yellow streaks by robots as she rotated around on the runway. While these ideas are similar, the fact that Coperni created the entire dress from scratch right in front of the audience, is certainly something that has never been done before. Bella Hadid even posted on Instagram after the show, stating in her caption that the stunt was not even practiced once, and was purely successful because of everyone’s passion for the project.
This memorable moment in fashion history will open the doors for using the spray-on material in multiple different fields. The technology used for this dress does not just stop at fashion; as previously mentioned, Fabrican is useful in the medical field, automotive industry, and can be a positive for the environment. In the medical field, the technology can be utilized to make face masks and protective garments in a relatively simple, low-cost manner. This is useful in all parts of the world and makes it possible to manufacture numerous sizes and shapes of protective gear. Fabrican can also be used to make various bandages, casts, and drug-administering patches in different levels of strength and durability. As for the automotive industry, Fabrican is beneficial to manufacturers who can use the spray-on fabric on car interiors, speeding up the design process, reducing labor costs, and reducing manufacturing stages. Fabrican technology can be used to help protect the environment from toxic spills when transporting goods, and can also be used as a tool to contain spills after they’ve occurred.
