MOSI Catwalk Organising

I took on the role of being part of the ‘Catwalk Group’ due to the fact that I felt I would be able to deliver a good role of patiently performing all the small jobs needed to allow the catwalk to happen. Firstly, we met in order to decide a seating plan, chorography and tape points, music playlist, dj, hair and make-up ideas, dressing cards for styling, model casting/fitting, refreshment ideas and funding. In order for us to work as a group efficiently we needed to assign roles to concentrate on, I paired up with Rosie and Chrissie to experiment with make-up ideas, from looking at all the finished garments, it was hard to devise an idea that helped to progress the inspiration of the unit and reflect well on the final pieces – to still make them the focus.

We had to meet to take photos of the remaining garments in order to create a fair and fluent line-up for the show, as clothes need to be shown in groups and compliment one after another.  A fitting was arranged with much help for Chloe (who was in good connection with the models) and garments which were left on that Monday evening were fitted and assigned a model, therefore a model to garment share was being devised and the running list was starting to take place. After this we needed to meet to test the way the models would walk and the capacity for seating arrangements, plus how slow the models would have to walk considering music pace and the length of the catwalk. 

We approached the rest of the year group on the idea of refreshments such as wine, and managed to arrange a submission of £5 to be paid into a kitty to pay for make-up too. A few submissions of music ideas where added to our Facebook page, which helped us all consider tracks to be played by our volunteering dj. Finding dressers was a simple idea to use the digital and symposium groups, as they would be free at the time of the show and have a level of respect for the garments and natural quality control instead of using public volunteers. After a few people suggesting we arrange professional hair/make-up artists and not receiving feedback, it was upon ourselves to create the looks from starch and be responsible for solely recreating them on the day.

The next Monday, we had a dress rehearsal at Mosi to ensure the models got the vibe of the catwalk, (strong, slow and moody), tested the music alongside the atmosphere (which later needed to be edited), line-up, and lighting and how the music would be played. It was obvious to constantly re-brief the models so they walked to the slow beat and to ensure the music fit well.  A line-up had to be discussed with the photos of the garments and the models fitted to create the perfect system for the day on the Tuesday.  

We all sat down for a meeting on the Friday to discuss styling on each single outfit, posted these to the group, then made sure they put their styling card together for the following Wednesday, in which we will rack-up the garments for the show on Friday.  The Friday morning as few of us arrived at the Cavendish building de-railed the garments into a few cars and made our way to the museum to rack-up again and set up for the make-up process.  Instead of making tickets, we assigned a maximum ¾ tickets per person and for there to be a guest list to ensure control to who was arriving on the night.

I researched into catwalk make-up trends for the season focusing on shows such as ‘Topshop Unique’, ‘John Galliano’, ‘Comme des garcon’ and ‘Illamasqua for Myer’ who all experimented with ethereal and metallic glitter hair ideas. Through experimentation, we found that a more costume effect was being made, therefore once we had feedback from the group we tones down the look to make it a more delicate highlight of silver than an all-over theatrical face of make-up. On the day, straight after the symposium, we set up the hair and make-up in a nearby room and other members of the catwalk group sent the models up to be styled the same. Rosie, Chrissie and me all decided to take control of a certain area and move the models along on a ‘conveyor belt’ process. I took charge of slicking back the hair into low ponytails and buns with gel, Chrissie then sorted the silver spray at the roots and Rosie added the silver face make-up. Due to the pressure of the day a few other students came to help with hair, so I joined Rosie to create the make-up looks. We were very proud of being able to make all the models into an ‘army’ of models, the make-up really had the effect we wanted, in order to erase the allure of the model’s beauty and give the ethereal and industrial ‘mass production’ look we wanted. I stayed onboard the backstage crew helping re-fix hair and make-up through the changes to ensure the show was seamless and making it into a show we were all very proud of. 

The first trail of make-up was far too overdone for the feel we wanted for the catwalk. We felt the subtlety of the gold worked well, with the contrast of the silver, so took these ideas and chose to tone the look down to give it more of a glow than a theatrical response. By keeping to using three tones of eyeshadow and white eyeliner, the look had no choice but to be minimal and ethereal. The subtle glow is hard to capture on camera, yet the complete look helps to null out the features of the face, allowing the garments worn by the models to shine through.