Air Swipe Bag, a bag made from 99% air by Coperni – A Leap Forward for Humanity and Fashion

Becoming the hot headline of every prestigious fashion magazine, seizing the spotlight of Paris Fashion Week Fall 2024, Coperni is causing a sensation with its new “humanity invention” – the Swipe Bag version made from 99% air and 1% glass.

In an age of technology, where the power of AI threatens the creativity of the fashion world, Coperni has never surrendered; on the contrary, it remains one of the leading brands in blurring the boundaries between fashion, technology, and science. Perhaps the fashion world still vividly remembers Bella Hadid’s explosive finale at Coperni Spring 2023 with a dress created in just a few minutes using advanced spray painting technology, or the iconic runway featuring robot dogs interacting with models. Yes, Coperni always knows how to create the most memorable moments in fashion history.

Continuing to “maintain its momentum,” Coperni Fall 2024 is no exception. In its latest collection, Coperni has elevated its vision to the sky, quite literally. From high-heeled shoes with star-shaped toes to futuristic-looking outfits, the French brand invites viewers to the wondrous galaxy. The runway is also filled with dresses resembling giant space blankets, as well as puffy dresses reminiscent of the rings of Saturn. The highlight throughout the collection still belongs to the unique accessories. The Swipe Bags that made the name of the French brand still exude the aura of a trendsetter as usual but are updated with new materials such as leather, denim, and notably, air.

That’s right, you didn’t hear it wrong, and the fashion world didn’t see it wrong either. In the Fall-Winter 2024 collection, Coperni has made a new breakthrough with the introduction of the “Air Swipe Bag,” made from 99% air and 1% glass. The Swipe Bag is a “blast” for both the brand’s revenue and reputation on the fashion map. From its debut to the subsequent updates with innovative materials, Coperni has turned the Swipe Bag into a true “It-Bag” in every woman’s accessory wardrobe. After the glass version or the Swipe Bag made from CD cases, the new bag made from air is certainly a new milestone for the brand, a leap forward for both humanity and the fashion world.

The new Swipe Bag retains its basic shape – like an egg carved to be worn over the shoulder. As for the special material, the glass part is actually silica aerogel, a nano-material, described by Coperni’s team as “very delicate (and not fragile).” Aerogel, also known as Alcogel, is made from silica gel (SiO2) and alcohol. Simply put, just letting alcohol evaporate from the silica gel will create the Aerogel structure, similar to blowing air through a piece of water-absorbent sponge, it will dry up. However, in reality, this process would never occur naturally. Instead of relying solely on evaporation, Aerogel is created through more complex processes.

Aerogel is a material with many interesting properties. It is the lightest solid material, the best insulator, and has the lowest material density. It is so light that it can be placed on a flower like a soft cloud. Aerogel is a form of “solid air,” with up to 90% of its volume being air, so it is only three times heavier than air and a thousand times lighter than glass. Although mostly air, Aerogel can withstand weights ranging from 500 to 4,000 times its own weight. Thus, it can be said that Coperni’s Air Swipe Bag is made from the lightest solid material on planet Earth, becoming the lightest bag, weighing only about 33 grams.

Before becoming the latest fashion breakthrough, due to its special thermal and acoustic insulation properties, silica aerogel was actually used by NASA in 1997. They used this material to insulate the “Sojourner” spacecraft from the extreme cold temperatures on Mars. On Earth, aerogel is being researched for use in manufacturing thermal-insulating windows.

During the creation of the Fall/Winter 2024 collection, when discovering Aerogel, co-founder and creative director Sébastien Meyer didn’t want to miss the opportunity to use such an unusual material. Meyer teamed up with Professor Iannis Michalous – a leading researcher and visual artist in combining silica aerogel into art, to conceive a grand human initiative, redesigning the Swipe Bag with Aerogel.

Coperni’s creativity raises many big questions about the future of fashion accessories. If we can create a wallet almost from air, what’s next? And is it a sign of a more sustainable future for fashion? Even though we might switch to using hand-held wallets for styling purposes, the functional aspect of a bag for carrying belongings cannot be overlooked.

When Coperni posted the bag on Instagram, many people asked the same question: “What can it hold?” And Coperni answered: “Our bag can hold an iPhone.” So, the fashion world has another ideal bag, meeting multiple standards: lightweight, sustainable, futuristic in design, made from 1-0-2 materials, and extremely practical. As the fashion month draws to a close, Coperni is proving that the sky is truly the limit, and air could be the key to all our favorite bags in the future.