Who are the designers of Coperni, and what is the brand's background?

Coperni was founded in 2013 by Sebastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, who named the label after Renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. Before launching Coperni independently, both designers served as co-creative directors at Courreges. Their work consistently merges technology, science, and sensuality into collections that are precise in construction and open in concept.

Why was the Coperni AW21 Paris Fashion Week show presented in a drive-in format?

The March 2021 Paris Fashion Week season took place under significant public health restrictions that prohibited traditional large-audience runway presentations. Rather than default to a filmed lookbook or studio setting, Coperni reframed the constraint as a creative opportunity, staging an audience-participatory drive-in experience inside the Accord Arena in Paris's 12th arrondissement that transformed the limitations of the moment into a defining cultural statement.

What role did DS Automobiles play in the Coperni AW21 show?

DS Automobiles served as the set partner for the Coperni AW21 presentation, providing 35 electric vehicles that transported the 70 guests through Paris and into the Accord Arena. The cars were not peripheral branding elements but structural components of the show's concept, with each vehicle's headlights functioning as individual spotlights illuminating the models as they moved along the catwalk.

COPERNI AW21 PRIMERA PASARELA "DRIVE-IN" EN PARÍS FW

COPERNI AW21: PRIMERA PASARELA "DRIVE-IN" DE LA HISTORIA EN PARÍS FW

Preámbulo

Coperni siempre ha dado prioridad al sol, a la luz del día, a las ideas claras y nítidas. Pero con el sol llega la noche. Ella nos muestra el mundo de otra manera, guiándonos como siempre, pero también instándonos a entrar en un tiempo nuevo, un tiempo para acoger lo imprevisto. Ya sea medianoche o mediodía, la noche es nuestra ventana para ver lo que es posible.

Experiencia

Rodaje de la pasarela el jueves 04 de marzo en París a las 19:30 (UTC+1)

70x participantes salen de sus casas en 35x coches eléctricos. Cada vehículo recorrerá las calles de París antes de llegar a la gran sala del Accord Arena de Bercy, en el distrito 12 de la Ciudad de la Luz. Los coches y sus pasajeros se adentrarán en la oscuridad de la sala vacía, espacio suficiente para más de 20.000 personas en tiempos normales. La coreografía tiene lugar después de que los vehículos hayan entrado en formación, convirtiéndose en parte integrante de la pasarela. Las radios de los coches se encienden y anuncian el inicio del rodaje. Los faros de cada vehículo se encienden al paso del primer modelo, lo que permite a los participantes ver la colección a través de la ventanilla de su coche.

Colección

The AW21 collection, now regarded as a landmark moment in Paris Fashion Week history, is an exploration into the complexity and the mystery of nighttime as we know it: sometimes pitch-black, sometimes dotted with stars, sometimes illuminated by the moon. The night-time of celebration, of seduction and of plunging into the unknown is opposed to the nighttime of sleep, of resting our bodies and allowing dreams to take over our mind and our soul.

Frank and dynamic cuts on classic silhouettes let us glimpse the skin lying beneath. The shoulders are raised, the arms are slender – ready to enter in to the darkness. Sensuality arises from a play on zipped draping. Second skin mesh opposes the moving fringes. Bags in the shape of a padlock suggest something locked away in darkness. Maximalised forms lead us towards calmness, reconciliation and time for ourselves. Softness protects the body and light becomes therapy.

This night remains one of the most referenced experimental runway moments of the decade.

Sébastien Meyer y Arnaud Vaillant

Créditos:

Dirección creativa : Maybe

Reparto : Samuel Ellis & Piergiorgio Del Moro

Estilo : Helena Tejedor

Producción : La Mode En Images

Música : Clara 3000

Cabello : Louis Ghewy con L'Oréal

Maquillaje : Farah Omidi con MAC Cosmetics

Decorado : DS Automobiles

Looking back from 2026, the Coperni AW21 drive-in format is widely credited as a direct precursor to the immersive, audience-participatory show concepts that now define the experiential runway era across Paris, Milan, and New York.

The Designers Behind Coperni: Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant

To understand why the Coperni AW21 drive-in show at Paris Fashion Week carries such weight, it is essential to understand the creative intelligence that conceived it. Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant founded Coperni in 2013, naming the label after the Renaissance astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, a figure synonymous with rethinking the relationship between known structures and the vast unknown. The name is not incidental. It signals a foundational commitment to repositioning the observer, shifting perspective, and questioning what the centre of any given universe truly is.

Meyer studied at the prestigious Institut Français de la Mode in Paris, while Vaillant brought a background in business and brand strategy, creating a partnership that balances rigorous aesthetic vision with sharp commercial awareness. Prior to launching Coperni as an independent house, both designers served as co-creative directors at Courrèges, where they earned critical praise for reviving a legacy brand with contemporary clarity.

Their approach at Coperni has consistently fused technology, science, and sensuality into wearable propositions that feel neither cold nor purely conceptual. The AW21 collection and its drive-in format were not a departure from their established language but rather its most concentrated expression: structured yet fluid, intimate yet theatrical, rooted in precision while open to the poetic.

Context: Why Paris Fashion Week AW21 Demanded Reinvention

The Paris Fashion Week AW21 season, held in March 2021, arrived during one of the most constrained periods in the history of the global fashion calendar. Ongoing public health restrictions across Europe had fundamentally altered the conditions under which designers could present their work. Traditional runway formats requiring large seated audiences were not viable, and many houses turned to pre-recorded digital presentations, lookbooks, or short films distributed via streaming platforms.

Within this landscape, the pressure to remain culturally relevant while respecting public safety guidelines was acute. Several major houses opted for archival references or intimate studio settings. Coperni’s response was categorically different. Rather than retreat into safety, Meyer and Vaillant identified the constraints themselves as creative raw material.

The drive-in format, a cultural reference rooted in mid-twentieth century American leisure and later repurposed during the pandemic for outdoor cinema and live events, was transplanted into the grandeur of the Accord Arena in Paris’s 12th arrondissement. The result transformed a logistical problem into a statement about collectivity, mobility, and the enduring human desire to witness something together, even when togetherness must be reimagined. In doing so, Coperni did not simply adapt to the moment; it defined it, and the fashion industry took careful note.

Legacy and Influence: How Coperni AW21 Reshaped the Runway Conversation

The reverberations of the Coperni AW21 Paris FW presentation extend well beyond the single evening of filming on 4 March 2021. Within the wider industry discourse, it is consistently cited alongside a small number of runway events that genuinely altered expectations of what a fashion show is permitted to be. The format introduced several ideas that have since become recurring considerations in show production: the audience as participant rather than passive spectator, the venue as a character with narrative function, and transport as both medium and metaphor.

From a production standpoint, the coordination required to navigate 35 electric DS Automobiles through the streets of Paris and into precise formation inside a 20,000-capacity arena represented a logistical achievement that demanded collaboration across automotive, event production, and fashion disciplines. DS Automobiles’ involvement as set partner was not mere sponsorship; the vehicles were integral to the visual and conceptual architecture of the show.

The choice of electric cars also carried an implicit environmental commentary, aligning the spectacle with a broader conversation about sustainability and responsibility that the fashion industry continues to navigate. Music by Clara 3000, hair by Louis Ghewy with L’Oreal, and makeup by Farah Omidi with MAC Cosmetics completed a production that was as precisely choreographed in its collaborative credits as in its spatial design. Looking back from 2026, the Coperni AW21 drive-in is understood not as a pandemic-era anomaly but as a deliberate, repeatable proposition for experiential fashion presentation.

NYSG