Fashion Forward

Event Design Magazine|May 10, 2010

New York’s Fashion Week is an exciting time for fashionistas, with all the glitz, glamor, and buzz around the world’s top designers debuting their collections. But the fashion stages and runways themselves create a critical backdrop for models and fashion designers’ creations, and can range from subdued and clean to ornate and over-the-top.

Lot71 handled six runway design projects at New York Fashion Week last February, and the studio’s founder/creative director Michael Brown knows all the secrets to pulling it off with panache. Designing environments for fashion designers varies greatly from client to client—some are inclined to have a theatrical environment for the presentation of their collection, and others are looking for something more subtle, underscored, and simple.

“I look at space as such a three-dimensional volume to fill. Not only is there the model entrance—which is a great theatrical moment—but you’re designing it for the camera shot and also for the people in the audience,” Brown says.

A lot of runways in New York have a tendency to stay the same for decades, and the predominant cliché—especially in Bryant Park—is a white runway with a logo on the back wall. It’s very simple, clean, elegant, and all about the clothes.

But some designers have a different grasp on theatrical space and its use as a storytelling device.

Brown comes from a theatrical set design background and brings a sculptural perspective on space and light and shape to the table.

“When I approach a project for a fashion client, they provide me with key words that describe the collection—very evocative adjectives, tones, and atmospheres that they’re looking for. I amass a pile of research so we can agree what the story we’re telling is, and what the visual language of the space is,” Brown says.

This year, Lot71 client Thakoon wanted a round, womb-like environ for his runway show. The venue was a warehouse space in Chelsea that was box-like and cold. Thakoon was looking for a design presence in the space that would warm it up and make it feel more round and feminine.

“From that direction, I combine together a number of visual directions we can go in, from sculpture, to translucencies and fabrics, to light and silks and scrims,” Brown says.

Once he agrees on the direction with client, Brown then goes into the sketch process and works on the model path, entrance and set wall. That’s the key focal point: Where the models are coming from, what the moment of the entrance is like, and how it reads for photographers.

Venues vary greatly in this realm, from tents to warehouses to lofts. Getting to know the pluses and minuses of each type of venue is critical when creating runways that work.

“I’ve done 30 shows in the past five or six years and it’s been great working in all the different venues. They all have limitations, but in a way that makes the job more interesting and exciting. It’s not a roadblock; it’s a challenge,” Brown says.

This year marked the fourth season Lot71 has worked with famed designer Isaac Mizrahi, who always brings interesting concepts to his shows.

“The pitch for the NY Fashion Week runway this past February was a mid-winter walk through Central Park crossed with an Upper East Side camping trip. He always puts a little twist of irony and comedy in his work. It’s a little tongue-in-cheek, but it allows for great theatrical solutions to be achieved,” Brown says.

Mizrahi also wanted to reference 1950s ballet scenery, hand-painted scrims, and wanted it to snow at the end of the show. Lot71 located several old mechanical snow drums that were revived and leveraged onsite to make it a reality.

The most exciting part of the process is seeing the concepts come to life at the show.

“The installation is amazing—there really is nothing like having the scenery you’ve installed in two hours really come to life—it’s pretty brilliant. You’ve been staring at something at quarter-inch scale for weeks or months, and then everything clicks,” Brown says.

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