Boston Dynamics robot canines were brought in by designers Sebastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant of Coperni for their A/W 2024 (Fall) runway exhibit during Paris Fashion Week.
Coperni handed the fashion industry its most memorable viral moment the previous year by spray-painting a frock on Bella Hadid. Whereas this year also brought something WOW ( I also talked about it in my previous article called ‘Paris Fashion Week 2024 by Anrealage‘).
This year, the French brand unleashed mechanical dogs on the runway. Boston Dynamics robot canines were brought in by designers Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant of Coperni for their Autumn/Winter 2024 (Fall) runway presentation during Paris Fashion Week. The performance, which was intended to highlight the meeting point between people and technology, diverted some attention from the collection.
About the show
Catwalk models frequently give the impression that they are from another species due to their bizarre dimensions, death-defying gaze, and superhuman ability to walk in 5 inch heels.
For the Coperni fashion show in Paris, however, it was the models—including Kate Moss’s daughter Lila—who portrayed helpless, flesh-and-blood beings. Five robots also performed onstage. Boston Dynamics and Coperni collaborated on the first fashion show where robots, not models, took centre stage.
Four sets of green eyes began to flare in the blackness as the lights went out. An audible collective exhalation could be heard as the “Spots,” Boston Dynamic’s robot dogs with yellow and black tarantula stripes, crept into the room. Each animal appeared to lock eyes with and go towards an audience member.
Five contemporary Hounds of the Baskervilles appeared to be in control of the chamber, giving it a foreboding atmosphere.
Models started to appear to perform with the Spots, but not even the most alluring of them could compete with the spring-loaded grace of a feline robot and its unwavering emerald gaze.
Then Spot assisted her in taking off her coat while a human and a robot approached and seemed to become friends. A different robot took the model’s handbag and carried it for her.
Designer and their idealisation
The Coperni designers described the performance as “a modern fairytale” that transformed the 17th-century poem The Wolf and the Lamb by Jean de la Fontaine into a tale about the power dynamics between humans and machines.
The company’s founders, Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, travelled to Boston to meet the designers of the most cutting-edge robots.
“The first robot business who signed a charter that they would never give robots weapons, the first who deployed robots to Ukraine to clear dangerous bomb sites,” claimed Vaillant of Boston Dynamics.
Our message—that people and technology can live in harmony—is a good one, he added. Yet, he claimed that his first interaction with a Spot left him feeling uneasy. But today, I believe they are simply stunning.
Criticism
The performance shows Coperni’s perspective, according to which there may be peace between humans and machines and that neither one can be dominant over the other. The FW23 collection highlights the symbiotic link between humans and technology and the poetry and imagination it permits through a show performance, according to a post from the brand.
The introduction of robots at the fashion show, however, did not sit well with online users who expressed their apprehension and scepticism. “Oof this feels like propaganda for these robots that are used by cops to surveil people,” one person said. “That horrible Black Mirror episode,” another person said. Are they truly necessary? said a third user. So, do we need them? few people even felt it was dangerous or anything could’ve gone wrong while performing because, in the end, It’s just a machine.
Watch the coperni’ show video
