White Light Returns to London Fashion Week 2017

London Fashion Week made a triumphant return to the capital last month. Taking place between 15 – 19^th September, London Fashion Week showcases the very best in British design with catwalk shows, presentations, designer showrooms and a range of bespoke events. The Week was held in prestigious venues all across London and WL was called upon once again to provide the technical support on a range of events.

WL has worked on London Fashion Week for more than ten years now. This year was one of the busiest yet, featuring more than 100 designers including Giorgio Armani, who was holding a catwalk event for the first time in London for more than ten years.

WL worked on a variety of events across the week; all of which were overseen by Senior Account Manager Dominic Yates. He comments: “London Fashion Week is always a fantastic event to work on, due to the fact that it is so high-profile and the entire fashion world is watching. Working closely with WL’s Head of Production Stuart Crane and Senior Project Manager Martin Strods, we wanted to ensure that we provided the very best support possible and that each showcase achieved its potential.

Dominic adds: “We worked with a range of lighting designers on a variety of shows; each of whom had a very particular feel that they were trying to achieve. Our role was to offer the equipment and technical advice both in the pre-rig stages and during the show’s themselves”.

Some of the events that WL worked on included Joseph at Bloomsbury B1. The show was produced by OBO with a lighting design by Alexandre Lebrun. Alexandre drew on a large range of generic fixtures to achieve his design, including Selecon Fresnels and ETC Source 4 Profiles and Pars.

Another includes the Simone Rocha showcase which took place at the historic Middle Temple Hall, where WL is an approved technical supplier. The iconic fashion label presented its new collection in a showcase produced by Karlo Otto and featuring a lighting design by Tupac Matir. Dominic adds: “With the Simone Rocha showcase, we supplied a combination of GLP Impression X4 RGBW LED, GLP Impression X4 Bar 20s and ETC Source Fours. We also supplied the audio for this show drawing on our range of EM Acoustics loud speakers, and a Yamaha QL1 for control.”

Other events that WL worked on throughout London Fashion Week include Natasha Zinko at Somerset House, Alistair James at Fitzrovia Chapel, Gucci at 180 The Strand, DAKS at The Langham and the COS Party at the National Gallery.

Dominic adds: “This year’s London Fashion Week was extremely busy and saw us working in multiple venues across the capital; a lot of the time simultaneously. That said, our extensive equipment inventory and technical staff ensured that every event we worked on ran extremely smooth and we look forward to returning once again next year”.

It’s been an exciting few months for WL’s Production team, with the appointment of Caz Caddick as Crew Co-ordinator, Martin Strods as Senior Project Manager and Harry Greenfield and Steve Burnham as Account Managers. The team has also appointed Rachel Condon as a dedicated Account Handler to manage the department’s internal kit logistics. WL’s Head of Production Stuart Crane comments: “We’ve added five highly-skilled and passionate individuals to our already established team. We want to ensure our clients continue to receive the very best service possible and the growth of our Production team will ensure that this happens on every single project”.

Photos courtesy of Martin Strods.