Clothes Show Live Goes ‘Theatrical’
The largest fashion and beauty event in the world returned to Birmingham's NEC in December for more fashion, hair, beauty, make-up, models and celebrities.
The centre piece of the event was a 45 minute catwalk performance which ran seven times a day to sell out crowds of 6,500 per performance.
Lee Lapthorne, one of the UK’s leading figures in the fashion show industry, directed the Show. “I based my ideas around on the four seasons” said Lee. “It’s a great device to show off a collection and with so much lighting and video technology at our disposal we could create something really spectacular.”
The venue for this extravaganza was branded ‘The Fashion Theatre’ and unwittingly, this gave those of us with an eye on production values (rather than fashion) an insight as to what we might expect.
Nigel Catmur was recruited by Haymarket Exhibitions as the show’s Lighting Designer. He brought with him a strong background in event and theatre lighting. Nigel commented:
“The brief was to be theatrical. The set was based on a proscenium style with 6 large window style sliders. With a complex and moving set the quantities of lights increased significantly this year and although the show contained plenty of technology we didn't want to shove it in the audience's face and instead we aimed to integrate it seamlessly into a much more theatrical style presentation.”
ELP provided the lighting hardware which consisted of 40 Source4 profile spots and 120 par cans, 30 High End studio beams, 12 VariLite 1000s and 80 Martin Mac spot / wash lights. Inevitably there were screens and XL Video supplied the hardware whilst Colin Rozee for R2 Productions created the content. The media was then run from 3 Catalyst media servers and programmed by Ross Williams whilst Nigel Catmur programmed the lighting himself. Both were left to run from timecode leaving the live elements of the show in James Tinsley's hands at the desks.
Paul Divine was the production manager, Colin Jones looked after dimmers and Mark Gardiner was ELP’s crew chief on this slickly executed fashion festival.
