Catalan scientist creates spray-paint technology behind Bella Hadid's dress
Manel Torres' technology used during Coperni SS23 fashion show to design live costume on model
Paris Fashion Week saw one of the most impressive moments in its recent history when model Bella Hadid was dressed onsite during Coperni's SS23 catwalk using spray-paint technology created by Catalan scientist Manel Torres.
Fabrican Ltd is a company created by the Catalan born in the inland town of Tornabous, that uses liquid fiber mixed with polymers, bio polymers, and greener solvents and once sprayed into a surface evaporates and becomes a wearable fabric.
In fact, the fabric can be manipulated without any problem as seen during Coperni's catwalk when after two painters sprayed Hadid's body, a third person came into action and cut a slit of the dress.
The material comes in cans and the Catalan scientist thought that he "could create a mist," he said in a 2013 TED Talk and recovered by the specialized website The Cut.
Torres studied fashion design at Barcelona school of arts and fashion techniques (Escola d'Arts i Tècniques de la Moda) before undertaking a fashion design master's at London's Royal College of Art, where he currently resides.
For years, Torres spend time investigating the technology to spray-paint a dress at the Imperial College London.
The performance during the catwalk lasted around eight minutes while dozens of spectators watched the fashion hit.
The historic moment was "magical and will stay engraved in our minds and hearts forever," French Coperni designers Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillan said in an Instagram post.
"Thank you for your trust, love, and the most mind-blowing performance," they added.
Hadid took it to social media to share that she was "speechless" and that "there is no singular person more important than the next, only together can we make magic," the model posted on social media.