LONDON — During the recent London Fashion Week (LFW), LD Nick Gray’s lighting rig for the British Fashion Council (BFC) tent at Somerset House needed to put on and discard a variety of looks for up to eight shows a day. Gray’s design company, Renegade, was asked to light several venues for LFW. At the BFC tent Renegade worked with the production company, Bacchus. The tent was lower than it has been previously, and black throughout for the first time, creating more of an intimate focus and vibe. Gray’s rig, which included an assortment of i-Pix BB4s and BB7s, was designed to dovetail and blend in with the venue.
The “spine” truss above the 45-meter-long white runway was tucked up into the apex of the roof and followed the contours of the tent. Nine BB7s were attached to the sides of the spine truss and used to cast a gentle glow on the audience for the walk-in states.
Gray also used 16 BB4s built into an archway at the entrance to the runway, eight per side. These were used to create silhouette and colored backdrop effects as the models made their entrances into what was effectively a well-lit light box.
Gray has used BBs on many other occasions, but in this specific instance, he chose them for their ability to achieve a white balance with the tungsten source key lights illuminating the runway. “I wanted to get the idea of lighting ‘flowing’ all round the room,” he said.
“The BBs have given us massive flexibility and enabled me to keep it looking interesting,” said Gray, adding that it also enabled him to create a different set of looks for each of the different shows.
Gray and Renegade partner Jonny Gaskell have used BBs numerous times before for live shows including Kasabian, Orbital and Groove Armada, but this was the first time he’s used them in a fashion environment.
“The colors are great,” said Gray, noting how the pastel ranges worked effectively for the Jasper Conran show, which required pinks, lilacs, pale greens and a variety of off-whites. “We were able to produce every single color he asked for.”
On another show, some of the outfits featured UV-sensitive materials, which they were able to pick up by running all the BB7s in full-saturated congo blue and adding one extra unit at the front end of the runway.
Lighting in the BFC tent — which also included close to 170 Source Four profiles — was programmed and operated by Ricardo Lorenzini using a grandMA full size console. Neg Earth supplied all lighting equipment, and Ben Howell served as crew chief.
For more information, please visit www.i-pix.uk.com.
