Six days ago reports appeared on Instagram of a monolith-shaped UFO spotted hovering above New York City. Two days later, it was seen in Naoshima in Japan. By Saturday, the object had made its way to the skies above Paris.
The monolith landed on Monday night on the runway of French brand Coperni, which posted the spoof videos to tease its sci-fi themed fall collection.
In a merger of film classics, Arnaud Vaillant and Sébastien Meyer had the mysterious black slab, which originally appeared in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” light up and play the five-note motif from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
The collection was rife with references to popular movies and conspiracy theories. Tinfoil hats inspired a crinkled silver minidress, while the lizard people theory spawned suits in a geometric patchwork of deadstock leather. (For more information, please fall into an internet wormhole.)
Knits came with snap patterns that recalled the headjacks in “The Matrix,” while items like a suit jacket and a trenchcoat were rendered as bodysuits. Dua Lipa has already adopted a similar look from the label’s pre-fall collection, alongside its new star-shaped shoes.
Despite such gimmicks, most looks were fairly down to earth, like the off-the-shoulder draped black taffeta UFO dress with a stiff circle skirt, which felt like a cute update to the classic LBD.
In keeping with tradition, they produced a collectors’ edition of their signature Swipe bag. Previous versions have been made from a 55,000-year-old meteorite or solid gold, but this one was developed by Prof. Ioannis Michaloudis, using a nanomaterial called silica aerogel, which has been used by NASA to capture stardust.
“He made a bag from 99 percent air and 1 percent glass,” Vaillant enthused, noting the end result weighs just 33 grams. It was strictly out of this world.