What does it mean when fashion wants to penetrate the skin? Can wellbeing be worn, or are we witnessing a new frontier in our obsession with controlling the body?
When Coperni introduced its C+ carewear line with Swiss biotech company HeiQ, it promised garments infused with live probiotics and prebiotics that deliver skincare benefits through contact with the skin. Each piece —leggings, tops, bodysuits— contains thousands of “friendly” bacteria, activated by body heat to help rebalance the microbiome. The campaign, titled Wear the Difference, is directed by Daniel Sannwald and fronted by Paloma Elsesser, a pairing that underscores the collection’s tension between technical promise and sensual poise.
It’s a seductive image of fashion as wellness technology, perfectly aligned with the brand’s appetite for spectacle, from Bella Hadid’s spray-on dress to robotic dogs undressing models on stage. Yet beneath the sheen, Coperni’s “bacterial couture” exposes a cultural unease: innovation dressed as care. In a world where bodies are continually optimized, clothing that claims to heal can feel less like comfort and more like soft control.
What matters is not only whether these textiles work, but why we want them to. As fashion absorbs the language of skincare and biotechnological purity, desire shifts from expressing who we are to perfecting what we are made of. Skincare becomes wearable, self-care becomes performance, and the thread between softness and surveillance grows thin.
–
Follow us on TikTok @veinmagazine
