Parisian ready-to-wear brand Coperni openly wears its affinity for icons of youth from long ago. Take for example the label’s CD-PLAYER Swipe Bag, released late last year. The design harkens back to an all-too-brief era when digital innovation had yet to fully define analog-centric lifestyles for the masses. Their latest offering, the Coperni x Transparent Speaker Jacket Blast Nostalgia, turns up the volume on nostalgia to another level.
The avant-garde, ’70s-inspired leather jacket, unveiled at Paris Fashion Week, was conceived by Coperni co-founders Sébastian Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant just two months before the label’s runway show. Swedish sound company Transparent, known for its minimalist, see-through hi-fi speakers, was seen as a source of inspiration for Coperni’s SS24 collection, and the co-founders reached out to the audio brand, offering to collaborate on infusing ambience into the fashion label’s most glamorous pieces.
Coperni exhibited its Spring/Summer collection, including the Coperni x Transparent Speaker Jacket, inside IRCAM, the music and technology research center at the Centre Pompidou.
Designing a jacket with built-in speakers seems like a simple stitching job, but in reality, the concept presented a unique set of challenges to achieve the desired balance between an ergonomic and truly wearable garment jacket with the properties of an acoustically superior speaker system.
The basic audio components are supplied by Transparent’s smallest existing speaker, the Light Speaker.
Arriving at the right functional design required multiple prototypes and fittings with 3D printed models. Each speaker driver is secured with Transparent’s signature black screws. Cable clutter is not a good idea on your desk or in your living room, but it certainly isn’t a fashion accessory, so Transparent and Coperni came up with this unique design by carefully hiding the connection to the amplifier in one front pocket and the connection to the battery pack in the other pocket in the lining of the jacket.
Coperni’s transparent jacket is a manifestation of the ongoing dialogue between fashion and technology, offering a glimpse into a future where wearable technology becomes a true statement piece, both to be heard and seen.
For more information on both brands, please visit coperniparis.com and transpa.rent.
Gregory Han is a Senior Editor at Design Milk. A Los Angeles native with a deep love and curiosity for design, hiking, tide pools, and road trips, you can catch some of his adventures and musings at gregoryhan.com.
