coperni reveals new swipe bag made of 99% air using NASA’s silica aerogel

Coperni’s cloudy air swipe bag with NASA’s silica aerogel

Coperni debuts its new Air Swipe Bag in its FW24 show, made of 99 percent air and 1 percent glass. The Parisian fashion house uses NASA’s nanomaterial silica aerogel, the dubbed lightest solid on planet Earth, to create the portable CD player-looking bag. Coperni co-developed the new Air Swipe Bag with Professor Ioannis Michaloudis.

At first glance, the bag has a misty look and a visual resembling frozen and trapped clouds. It seems extremely light, so fans of the bag may want to handle it with care given that its 1-percent glass may not hold up if they swing it back and forth like a person chasing the train during rush hour. If the users put objects inside Coperni’s new Air Swipe Bag, they might want to consider only bringing light essentials, or they may have to carry them all in their hands.

images and video stills courtesy of Coperni

NASA’s silica aerogel is used to capture stardust

Coperni’s new Air Swipe Bag weighs only 33 grams, given that NASA’s nanomaterial silica aerogel is a highly delicate and non-fragile nanomaterial. The space agency used it in its stardust mission, the first spacecraft to bring samples from a comet to Earth in 1999, since it can withstand extreme heat of up to 1,200 degrees celsius and a pressure of 4000 times its weight. Coperni toys with this idea by transforming NASA’s aerogel into a misty and cloudy Air Swipe bag, which is dubbed the biggest ever object made of this space technology nanomaterial. Coperni has yet to reveal the availability of its new drop, unveiled during its FW24 show.

Coperni debuts its new Air Swipe Bag in its FW24 show, made of 99 percent air and 1 percent glass

NASA’s silica aerogel before Coperni’s air swipe bag

NASA describes aerogel as one of the lightest solid materials available on Earth. It is created by combining a polymer with a solvent, and this mixture forms a gel. The liquid is then removed or extracted from the mixture to be replaced with air. Aerogels are considered porous, low-density, and solid to the touch. These properties may have nudged Coperni to experiment with it for its new, cloud-like Air Swipe Bag since this translucent material gives the bag its transparent look, allowing the smoke inside to appear trapped and frozen.

Coperni uses NASA’s nanomaterial silica aerogel, the dubbed lightest solid on planet Earth, to create the bag

NASA has explored using aerogel in different ways, with one of the first efforts being reinforcing it with polymers. This makes the aerogel less fragile, so it doesn’t break apart. The second method involves creating aerogels entirely from polymers, which gives the researchers an even stronger and more flexible block-like aerogel. These methods, coupled with other research conducted by NASA, may have been employed to create Coperni’s new Air Swipe Bag, whose fragile look might be sturdy enough to hold objects, thanks to its glass reinforcement.

closer look of Coperni’s Air Swipe Bag with NASA’s silica aerogel