Coperni built its reputation on a spray-on dress and a handbag shaped like a phone gesture, which tells you how the label thinks. The coperni bag range runs almost entirely on the Swipe, a shape named after the motion you make on a screen. It is one of very few genuinely new bag silhouettes of the last decade.
The Coperni Bag Made A Swipe Gesture Into An Object
The Swipe is a shape, not a style name
Most houses name a bag after a place or a person and then make it in different sizes. Coperni named its bag after a gesture and then built the whole range from that single curved form. The Swipe Bag, Mini Swipe Bag, Loop Swipe Bag, Crossbody Swipe Bag, Medium Soft Swipe Bag and Soft Swipe Bag are six readings of one outline, varying by scale, strap and structure. The soft versions collapse and the structured ones do not, which changes the object considerably more than a size change would. A coperni bag is recognisable at a distance for the same reason a Baguette or a Saddle is, because the silhouette is the logo.
The Heart is where the label gets playful
Alongside the Swipe sit the Heart Tote and the Belt Heart Tote, which are the only pieces here not following the curve. The heart shape is a more obvious kind of fun and it functions as the accessible entry to a label otherwise known for conceptual work. The Belt Heart Tote adds a strap system that turns it into something you can wear rather than carry. Sebastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant have consistently used spectacle as the marketing and restraint as the product, and the bags are the clearest example of that split. The show gets the attention and the Swipe pays the bills.
Our honest take
New bag shapes are rare and this is a real one, which is worth more than most of what gets launched in this category. The Mini Swipe is the version most people should buy because the curve reads best when the bag is small and the shape has to work harder. The soft versions are more forgiving to carry and lose some of the sculptural quality that is the entire reason to want one. The Crossbody Swipe is the practical choice and the Loop is the most design-forward. The Heart totes are charming and are a different brand conversation entirely. If you take one thing away, it is that the structured Swipe in a small size is the purest version of the idea, and everything else is a compromise in one direction or the other.
