The latest instalment of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia was recently held at Sydney’s Carriageworks entertainment precinct. Bringing together the biggest names in Australian and international fashion designers, models and media, it is a must attend event for those on the cutting edge of fashion and design.
Being the show of shows in Australia, designers’ creations aren’t limited to the clothes on show; set design, theming and other theatrics are incorporated into runway performances. From synth-pop 80’s inspired fun, to break dancing, to a delicate Japanese cherry blossom garden complete with falling snow petals, artistic flare and inspiration came from far and wide.
Tasked with the lighting design for all the Carriageworks spaces, Paul Collison had quite a job at hand with the main venue being flipped multiple times during the week. The show floor would need to evolve to a rock venue from a theatre set with a complete different look and feel for shows only hours apart.
“Due to the varied use of the space, I had to design a multipurpose system that would cope with the drastic changes in the runway paths” outlined Paul. “I selected the Robe Spiider for my main wash fittings, they cover everything needed in their colour range, from big saturated primaries to pastels, and even tungsten feels for key light features. Their zoom, pixel effects and unique flower/beam element adds to the palette of effects”.
The extravagant Camilla performance featured Japanese drummers, a tea ceremony and dance among the models flaunting the latest designs.
“For the Camilla performance we used a lot of subtle pastel pinks and blues, as well as snapping to really deep blues to create background during spot lit performances”. Other performances featured super clean white light looks such as Bianca Spender, while others such as I.AM.GIA used the whole box of tricks with big rock looks, low fog, animating pixels and saturated reds. “That one was a lot of fun as we had the freedom to use more of the toys on offer. For a wash lamp the Spiiders certainly have plenty to play with”.
Production Technologies technically managed all production for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week 2018 and all lighting was provided by Chameleon Touring Systems.
All images credited to Getty Images.
