7 times runway fashion blew our minds

From Alexander McQueen's robotic spray paint dress to Bella Hadid’s Coperni moment, here are seven times fashion transformed before our eyes

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Hero image in post

From Alexander McQueen's robotic spray paint dress to Bella Hadid’s Coperni moment, here are seven times fashion transformed before our eyes

By Sophie Lou Wilson11 Oct 2022
5 mins read time
5 mins read time

Bella Hadid in Coperni’s spray-on dress was undoubtedly one of fashion week’s most memorable moments. It captured the internet’s attention immediately, instantly becoming an iconic piece of fashion history. However, it was far from the first time that runway fashion has blown our minds.

The meeting of fashion and tech has resulted in some of the most poetic and theatrical catwalk moments, and designers have also played with natural or uncanny materials like ice cubes or balloons to transform garments from one state to another in front of our very eyes.

Runway fashion is a performance, more so than ever as brands compete to go viral on social media. But even pre-Instagram, the catwalk was a stage for designers to express their most ambitious ideas. These moments merge performance art and scientific experiments, often to express deeper philosophical ideas. Many are moving and emotional while proving that fashion can be fun and originality isn’t dead.

So, if you can’t stop watching the Bella Hadid spray-on dress video and want to feast your eyes on some other breathtaking fashion moments, we’ve mined recent fashion history, rounding up seven times the runway truly blew our minds, from disintegrating clothing at Hussein Chalayan to CSM graduate Fredrik Tjærandsen’s viral balloon dresses.

The spray-on dress

Bella Hadid’s spray-on Coperni dress looked like something from a futuristic sci-fi film, but the tech was actually invented back in 2003 by Spanish fashion designer and scientist Manel Torres who wanted to speed up the slow and laborious process of making garments.

However, it was more or less under the radar until Coperni used it to close their SS23 show, spraying Bella Hadid with white paint that solidified into a jersey-like fabric once applied to the skin. The breathtaking moment went viral, proving how much we love watching a transformation take place on the runway and cementing Bella’s status as the supermodel of a generation.

Drone dressing

Runway drones can be a bit hit and miss. When a Hilton hotel in Saudi Arabia used drones instead of models at a fashion show in 2018, guests reported feeling like they were in a horror film, because it appeared that the dresses were being worn by ghosts. Yikes! The same year, Dolce & Gabbana used drones to send accessories down the runway to a similar effect.

However, Issey Miyake’s SS20 show proved that the best way to incorporate drones was to use them alongside models rather than replacing them. During the playful show drones floated down from the ceiling like ethereal UFOs carrying colourful hoop-stretched dresses and matching hats that they dressed the models in. Like the spray-on dress, this techy fashion hack made for a captivating runway show.

Deflating balloon dresses

CSM is known for producing some of the freshest minds in fashion and every so often a young designer comes along who truly takes our breath away. In 2019, BA student Fredrik Tjærandsen closed the graduate show, going instantly viral with his innovative balloon designs that transformed into dresses on the runway in real time. Models appeared hidden inside giant inflated balloons. As they walked, they activated a latch inside the balloons that slowly deflated them, turning them into wearable rubber dresses. That’s one way to blow up the internet.

Dissolving fashion

At Hussein Chalayan’s SS16 show, two models stood beneath a shower as their water-soluble garments slowly disintegrated in front of a live audience. The clinical-looking military detail white jackets dissolved to reveal delicate dresses underneath. The show was inspired by Cuban history, “the transformation of a militant kind of situation to a more playful one,” Chalayan told Vogue. Overall, the gradual disintegration of one garment to reveal another showed just how quickly a change of clothes can transform how we interpret those wearing them.

Fashion as art

Is fashion art? Viktor & Rolf tried to answer this timeless question in their AW15 couture collection where models walked the runway in sculptural dresses that were then unfastened from them by Viktor and Rolf themselves before being hung up on the wall. Dresses featured hinged frames and Renaissance painting graphics, allowing them to go seamlessly from wearer to wall. The answer, it seems, is that fashion is fashion when it’s on the body, but becomes art when it’s on the wall.

Melting ice cubes

Ice isn’t exactly the most practical material for clothes and accessories, not least because it starts melting straight away. For SS06, however, Margiela used this to his advantage. Known for finding beauty in the unexpected – tabi boots anyone? – the designer turned dyed ice cubes into necklaces and earrings. As the ice melted on the runway, it stained white garments pink and blue. The show reflected the temporality of fashion; ice has the sparkle and transparency of traditional jewellery but, unlike diamonds, it doesn’t last forever.

Spray paint robotics

Many compared the Coperni spray-on dress to Alexander McQueen’s robotic spray paint finale at the AW99 show, but there were a few key differences. McQueen’s paint moment felt far more violent. Model Shalom Harlow looked frightened and out of control as she rotated like an unhinged ballerina in a music box as two industrial robotic arms attacked her white dress with paint, a metaphor for being at the whim of technology, or being an artist who’s trapped by their art.