White Light Returns to London Fashion Week 2017
Comments Off on White Light Returns to London Fashion Week 2017
London Fashion Week made a triumphant return to the capital last month. Taking place between 15 – 19th 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.
Alison Brooks Architects are an architectural firm with an international reputation for design excellence in projects ranging from masterplanning to buildings for education and the arts. Last week they celebrated their 21st birthday at Somerset House in Central London. To make it an unforgettable occasion, they approached White Light to provide the complete technical solutions.
WL’s role was to provide the complete technical support, which included everything from the lighting, staging, rigging, video, audio and even the plinths on which a lot of exhibits would be displayed. Steve states: “The lighting design largely consisted of ETC Source Four Minis and ETC Mini Track. We wanted to use track lighting as this would allow us to position fixtures so that they highlighted certain pieces of work and, at the same time, remain fairly unobtrusive to the rest of the space. We also drew on Martin MAC Viper Profiles to present the Alison Brooks Architects logo as guests entered the space”.
The most important technical aspect of the evening was projection, with the practice creating a video of their career highlights that they wanted to be somehow displayed within the space. WL found the perfect solution. Steve states: “To achieve maximum coverage, we drew on 13 Christie Projectors, of which we hold a fleet in stock. These allow us to achieve high quality projection yet can do so over a large canvas. The Embankment Gallery is actually perfect for projection as the interior consists of flat panels that sit within its curved architecture. What this meant is that we could project clearly the incredible past projects of Alison Brooks Architects yet do so holistically using the environment we were in”.