The Wolf and the Lamb
—Arnaud Vaillant
For the fall/winter 2023 fashion show in Paris, Coperni, the Parisian ready-to-wear and accessories brand created ten years earlier by Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, took a page from the 17th-century Jean de La Fontaine fable “Le Loup et l’Agneau”—”The Wolf and the Lamb,” about the determination of the one to eat the other. As the Coperni show began, five robot canines stalked out and glared menacingly at the audience. But then, when the label’s models ventured onto the runway, the Boston Dynamics robots turned friendly, helping one out of her coat and carrying the handbag of another.
While the original fable “raises questions relating to the balance of power between the human groups that make up society,” the designers explained in their show notes, “Coperni reinterprets the story and transposes it to the year of 2023 with a positive vision of the future. The show presents Coperni’s vision which is that there is neither a dominant nor a dominated, but that mankind and machine can live in harmony.”
Six months later, on September 21, 2023, Coperni unveiled a series of game-engine-generated videos called The Wolf, the Lamb and the Stream inspired by the fashion show. Featuring an avatar of Lila Grace Moss, the 21-year-old daughter of one-time supermodel Kate Moss, the video sequence was likewise said to question the relationship between humans and machines. Directors Alexandre Silberstein and Florent Canale brought the idea to life in collaboration with Coperni and the Parisian creative studio Everest Lab. The result was a procedural generative piece made up of scenarios randomly chosen by a host machine.
The videos ran continuously for six months on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, playing an ever-changing sequence of 40-second stories involving a variety of sets, scenarios, and looks from Coperni’s collection. Some 320,000 stories were generated and streamed live on a dedicated website and on Coperni’s Youtube channel.
The stories were accompanied by music composed by Anomaly Spectre—the name Florent Canale uses as a musician—using three main tracks that were degraded in dozens of different ways. A randomly appearing voiceover followed the same principles: Texts were generated by prompting ChatGPT to create different versions of the fable which were then read by an AI-generated voice. Lighting was synchronized to the Paris time zone, emphasizing the real-time aspect of the piece.
THE FABLE
First published in 1668 in Book One of the Fables de La Fontaine, “Le Loup et l’Agneau” was based on a tale attributed to Aesop, a former slave who is said to have lived in Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. Though it’s unclear if Aesop ever actually existed, his fables have become well known the world over in the past 2,500 years. In his 1867 edition of Aesop’s Fables, the English translator George Fyler Townsend appended a moral to the story:
“WOLF, meeting with a Lamb astray from the fold, resolved not to lay violent hands on him, but to find some plea to justify to the Lamb the Wolf’s right to eat him. He thus addressed him: ‘Sirrah, last year you grossly insulted me.’ ‘Indeed,’ bleated the Lamb in a mournful tone of voice, ‘I was not then born.’ Then said the Wolf, ‘You feed in my pasture.’ ‘No, good sir,’ replied the Lamb, ‘I have not yet tasted grass.’ Again said the Wolf, ‘You drink of my well.’ ‘No,’ exclaimed the Lamb, ‘I never yet drank water, for as yet my mother’s milk is both food and drink to me.’ Upon which the Wolf seized him and ate him up, saying, ‘Well! I won’t remain supperless, even though you refute every one of my imputations.’
“The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.”
IN THE MEDIA
“Expectations for Coperni were high this season, after the brand created the most viral moment of 2022, presenting a spray-on dress on supermodel Bella Hadid last September. ‘It was just crazy, we could never have expected the reaction,’ says creative director and co-founder Sébastien Meyer, speaking at the brand’s new 400m² Paris HQ, three days out from the AW23 show. Coperni gained over 300,000 followers overnight and sales grew ‘significantly’ on the previous season, both from wholesale and Coperni’s e-commerce store, where the brand couldn’t restock fast enough. ‘Our Instagram just broke,’ Coperni CEO and co-founder Arnaud Vaillant says. ‘We couldn’t believe it.’ The duo, partners in life and work, have since been cooking up their next act, while grappling with intense new demand and pressure from the industry. . . .“Arguably, Coperni doesn’t need the fanfare of spray on dresses or robotic dogs to spark interest around their clothes. Coperni collections themselves are punctuated with tongue-in-cheek products with viral potential that appeal to young consumers. The AW23 collection features a Swipe bag made of meteorite that hit Southern France 55,000 years ago (Meyer proudly presented its authenticity certificate); a totally reflective dress made in collaboration with fashion school Les Arts Decoratifs; a jacket hand painted from an AI-generated image of a robot and a lamb; and a small brown handbag that almost exactly replicates the iPhone handbag emoji (“Gen Z are going to love it!” Vaillant quips). The designers don’t mind that robots may overshadow these details on first look. ‘It’s a show that we are doing,’ Meyer says. ‘People want to live an experience!’”
—Vogue
“With their impossible proportions, thousand-yard stares and supernatural ability to walk in five-inch heels, catwalk models often appear a different species to regular humans. But it was the models, including Kate Moss’s daughter Lila, who played the role of vulnerable, flesh and blood creatures at the Coperni fashion show in Paris, where they shared the stage with five robots. . . . As the lights went down, four pairs of green eyes began to flash in the darkness. When the “Spots” – Boston Dynamic’s robot canines, in tarantula stripes of yellow and black – stalked into the room, there was an audible collective intake of breath as each creature seemed to lock eyes with, and approach, an audience member. The room took on an air of menace, as if at the mercy of five modern day Hounds of the Baskervilles. . . .
“Catwalk convention dictates that as soon as the models have left the runway and the designer taken a bow, the audience scrambles for the exit. But with five robots still staring out from the stage, the room remained in stillness and silence long after Meyer and Vaillant had disappeared backstage. Whether this was out of nerves, or the lack of an etiquette guide for interactions with robots, was not immediately clear. Eventually the robots were joined by the handlers who had been directing the choreography from backstage, and the crowd breathed a sigh of relief. Soon after, in true supermodel style, the robots were besieged by fans requesting selfies.”
—The Guardian
“The Wolf and the Lamb not only builds upon the heritage of art and technology but also pushes the boundaries of the fashion industry. Coperni’s use of robo-dogs in their real-life show signifies their willingness to embrace technological advancements and explore new possibilities. This bold move challenges the traditional runway format and opens up opportunities for innovative and immersive fashion experiences that captivate audiences.
As the streaming experience unfolds, for 6 months until end of March 2024, viewers are taken on a journey through various environments and scenarios, each generated by the A.I. algorithm. The constant evolution and flow of scenes create a mesmerizing and ever-changing visual spectacle. The combination of cutting-edge technology and artistic expression results in a thought-provoking and captivating experience that pushes the boundaries of art, fashion, and technology.”
—Kultur
