A Future Unfinished: Inside Coperni’s Sudden Closure
The shocking news that had us in tears. Fashion will never be the same.
On November 4th 2026, the iconic Parisian fashion house, Coperni, announced that their French operating company, Coperni SAS, is ceasing operations. Coperni founders Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant released a message to the official Coperni Instagram stating that they had tried for months to preserve Coperni while seeking a resolution with their London based distributor, Tomorrow Ltd.
Although the pair stated “despite all our efforts, no solution can be found”, the announcement for ceasing operations does not state the future of Coperni. As in, if the Coperni trademark has been or will be dissolved, that the brand name can never return, or that its founders have retired from fashion. As of November 5th, the future ownership and potential use of the Coperni name remains unresolved in public reporting.
Who is Tomorrow and why did Coperni depend on them?
The arrangement Tomorrow Ltd. was not simply a third party warehouse or shipping company. Distributors play multiple roles and functions for fashion companies. For Coperni, they were the distribution, production, commercialization, and financing through its contractual relationship with the brand.
How the Fashion-Distributor Partnership Works
Coperni SAS is the sole creative operations and the designer of runway collections, creative direction, and the hold/controller of the brand’s identity. Tomorrow Ltd. is the commercial partner and majority shareholder taking care of manufacturing operations, wholesale distribution, sales collection, royalty payments, and certain reimbursements. Between Coperni and Tomorrow, the relationship and commercial agreement allowed Coperni to design and develop its collections while Tomorrow provided much of the business infrastructure needed to manufacture, sell, and distribute them. Tomorrow pushed Coperni’s items to retailers and wholesale customers which included products sold through the global fashion distribution network.
Under Coperni SAS’ reported business model, Tomorrow collected revenues and paid contractual royalties or revenue shares to the brands it worked with. Coperni alleges that those payments stopped arriving. The consequences in situations like this can be severe for a brand with a strong presence and consumer interest as their creative operations needed cash to pay employees, contractors, suppliers, and other imperative expenses to run their business. However, it's imperative to note that revenue passing through a distributor does not automatically insinuate cash being available to the fashion house.
What Coperni Alleges
The Coperni founders have maintained that Tomorrow failed to pay sums owed to the brand which includes revenue shares and reimbursements. According to Vogue Business, it was reported in June that Tomorrow has also terminated its licensing agreements, ultimately pushing Coperni into a position of a loss of these payments and significant financial pressure on its business and employees.
The New Owner if Tomorrow
In March 2026, months before the Coperni closing announcement, the Italian holding company Progetto 11 acquired Tomorrow Ltd. Along with this, Progetto 11 disputed the suggestion that it was responsible for Coperni’s closure. Based on their November 4th statement to Vogue Business, Progetto 11 argued that it inherited an already troubled business characterized by financial pressures and ownership disagreements.
The company stated:
The amounts claimed as unpaid were disputed and had not been agreed or reconciled.
Some financial claims originated before Progetto 11 acquired Tomorrow.
It offered potential solutions, including recapitalization, share purchases, and arrangements that could have returned ownership to the founders.
The founders did not accept the proposed recapitalization, cash offer, or reciprocal ownership process, according to Progetto 11.
Progetto 11 maintains that no mutually agreed and sufficiently financed rescue plan was finalized before the legal process concluded.
Why the Court-Ordered Lifeline Fell Short
In court, settling doesn’t always mean agreements between both parties. In June, judicial protection was provided through a French restructuring procedure to Coperni. This is sometimes compared to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, however, the legal frameworks are not identical. On the French judicial reorganization side, they are able to provide a distressed business with supervised protection while potential restructuring solutions are considered.
The case proceeding for Coperni was intended to give the company the ability to continue operating, protect jobs, and explore financing or ownership solutions. However, the protection does not generate cash nor does it compel the parties to agree on restructuring, or guarantee a practical financial plan to transpire.
Before the Runway Revolution: The Origins of Coperni
Who is Coperni?
In 2009, Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant met while studying at Mod'Art International in Paris. Meyer studied fashion design, garment construction, and patternmaking. Vaillant studied fashion business and management. With their skill sets combined, they became an iconic duo combining science and fashion.
In 2013, Coperni Femme was born modest. In a 2021 interview with Flash Art, the founders recalled developing the concept in their small Paris apartment and posting early creations on Instagram. The positive response to those designs encouraged them to formally establish the Coperni label with their first collection launched in September 2013.
With the ideas and skills Meyer and Vaillant hold, came the fascination with science, progress, discovery, and innovation. Related to that is the name Nicolaus Copernicus whose heliocentric model challenged the prevailing understanding of the universe.
In 2014, Coperni received the ANDAM First Collections Prize, recognizing its potential as an emerging fashion label. 2014 was also a year that produced an important business connection. At ANDAM, the founders met Stefano Martinetto, chief executive of Tomorrow London. This was the beginning of the relationship that would eventually connect Coperni to Tomorrow's production, sales, distribution, and investment resources. The formal relaunch partnership was announced in 2019.
By 2015, Coperni was the center of attention and eventually became a finalist for the prestigious LVMH Prize. However, Meyer and Vaillant had different plans. At the same time, they were offered the opportunity to become artistic directors of Courrèges, a luxury fashion house known for Space Age fashion, geometric silhouettes, and its futuristic approach to clothing. Soon enough, they accepted the positions in May 2015, and withdrew from the LVMH Prize competition, ultimately putting Coperni on hold. For approximately two years, the founder’s poured their work into modernizing Courrèges. With this step in their path, their experience strengthened their understanding of running a larger established fashion house, preparing them to reconsider the direction of their own label. They departed from Courrèges in July 2017.
The Return of Coperni with Tomorrow
After leaving Courrèges, Meyer and Vaillant decided to relaunch Coperni in 2018, with the formal public relaunch announced in February 2019. But they were not alone. They partnered with Stefano Martinetto and Tomorrow London, the fashion business-development company whose CEO they had met five years earlier.
In a February 2019 article, Vogue reported that Tomorrow's partnership included both shareholding and access to structural resources, including an Italian factory and commercial tools.
Tomorrow’s Stake
Tomorrow became an investor and commercial partner in a promising designer label. Tomorrow would benefit from the brand’s growth through its equity interest and licensing and distribution agreements. Eventually, Tomorrow gained majority stake in Coperni, leading to the founders no longer holding majority ownership.
The precise date when Tomorrow acquired majority control, the initial percentage purchased in 2019, and the price paid have not been established in the public sources reviewed.
What is confirmed is that the 2019 relaunch already included a shareholding relationship; the eventual majority-shareholder status did not emerge simply because Tomorrow was delivering merchandise to stores.
Coperni Develops into a Globally Recognized Label (2020-2025)
With the commercial infrastructure supporting its growth, Coperni developed the runway experiments and products for which it became known.
In a 2022 Vogue Business interview, Vaillant stated that sales had doubled each season from 2021 onward. The same report stated that handbags represented approximately 40% of sales, ready-to-wear 48%, and footwear 12% at the time.
Tomorrow's then-CEO, Martinetto, credited the company's early support with helping Coperni establish manufacturing, sales, and distribution capabilities that many young brands lack.
A Partnership on the Rocks
By 2026, the relationship that had supported Coperni's relaunch had become the center of its financial difficulties. The founders alleged that Tomorrow stopped paying the licensing fees, revenue shares, and expense reimbursements needed to fund the business.
Along with it, Tomorrow's ownership subsequently changed when it was acquired by Italian company Progetto 11. Meyer and Vaillant attempted to regain control of the brand, but the parties could not reach an agreement, leading to Coperni SAS’ November 4th announcement of ceasing operations. Tomorrow's new owner disputes aspects of the founders' financial claims and maintains that proposed rescue arrangements were not accepted.
Why Coperni's closure matters: The brand that made fashion futuristic
Founded in 2013 and relaunched later in the decade, Coperni became particularly well known for treating fashion as an intersection of technology, performance, and experimental design.
We remember its iconic collections that were often accompanied by unconventional presentations that blurred the boundaries between runway, art installation, and technological demonstration.
2022: Bella Hadid’s Spray on Dress
During the Spring/Summer 2023 show, technicians sprayed Fabrican's fiber-containing liquid material directly onto almost nude Bella Hadid, creating a fitted white dress on stage. Coperni worked for several months with the company, Fabrican, on this liquid which contains a blend of cotton and synthetic fibers. The blend is suspended in a polymer solutions that when in contact with skin, it evaporates. The moment became one of the decade's and possible fashion-science history’s most recognizable runway spectacles.
2024: The Air Swipe Bag
Coperni presented an experimental iteration of its signature Swipe bag made of 99% air. The hand bag was made using NASA-produced silica aerogel that was developed to “catch stardust”. Silica aerogel is an ultralight material with a history of aerospace applications. This was a particularly direct intersection of pure outer-space-science-fashion identity. Greek researcher and visual artist of this bag, Ioannis Michaloudis, stated that it is the “lightest sold [material] on planet Earth”.
2024: Disneyland Paris Runway
The house staged a high-profile show at Disneyland Paris, with Kylie Jenner appearing in a dramatic black gown for the finale. It demonstrated Coperni's ability to transform a fashion presentation into a nostalgic event of Disney princesses, centered in the front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle.
2025: Fashion Meets Gaming Culture
Just a year after the Disney spotlight, Coperni incorporated a live gaming and LAN-party environment into its runway presentation, continuing its exploration of technology-driven experiences. Similarly, they presented the nostalgia that gamers strive for, by hosting a 24-hour local area network party paying homage to the sweet old days gamers joining multiplayer PC games by bringing their computers to functions.
It's these moments that push the boundaries in fashion and extend identity beyond clothing- its being able to relate to multiple audiences at once. Coperni helped show how runway presentations could become cultural events, combining fashion design with engineering, digital culture, spectacle, and new materials.
The Final Curtain for Coperni, or Just an Intermission?
It’s possible but no relaunch has been confirmed. Looking at the timeline, the founders starting Coperni, leaving, and relaunching, it would be the founder’s second relaunch of the brand. Nonetheless, their ideas, skill, and passion can be projected under a new brand name and identity.
More importantly, The Business of Fashion reported that it remains unclear whether Tomorrow's new owners intend to continue using the Coperni name. The founders have also expressed optimism about future creative work, but that should not be presented as an announcement of a new label or an imminent Coperni revival. The important distinction is that an operating company can cease activity while the rights associated with a brand remain subject to separate ownership and legal arrangements.
Sources
https://fashionista.com/2022/09/coperni-spring-2023-bella-hadid-spray-on-dress
https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/coperni-paris-fashion-week-show-gaming-1236906377/
https://www.dezeen.com/2024/03/12/coperni-air-swipe-bag-nasa-aerogel/
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