Creativity plays a vital role when it comes to fashion. From designers to models, every aspect of a fashion show could make or break the game. Although the design of the stage should be eye-catching, keep in mind the primary purpose of a stage is to support and showcase the designer’s clothes, along with creating the right atmosphere based on a designer’s vision.
Here are a few tips to help you design a fashion show that will leave a long-lasting impression on your audience:
1. Choose The Right Music
Music sets the tone and mood of a fashion show. The audience present during the fashion show wishes to feel the energy and an overall positive vibe. While the models are walking on the runway, the music track should be aligned with their walking pace. The right style of music would be an upbeat track that is not too fast-paced. Models are usually trained to walk according to the rhythm of the music. If the music track is too fast, the models will end up speed walking to and from the ramp. However, if the music track is too slow, the models’ walking pace will drag. One tip is to get the models to walk to the music before the actual show starts so that you still have time to change it if it is not appropriate.
2. Building The Right Stage Layout
Choosing The Layout
The traditional runway consists of a long, straight platform with side-tiered seats on both sides. This variation is known to provide one of the best visibilities for the audience. Another popular runway variation would be the T shaped layout, which is mostly preferred by designers since they can display multiple models at once instead of a single model when a traditional runway is used. Other variations of a runway include an X-shaped or U-shaped stage. Despite the endless variations out there, you should choose a stage layout that matches the designer’s expectations and what they would like to portray during the fashion show. Essentially, you are building this stage for the designers to showcase their designs; hence, it is important that you fulfil their expectations.
Building The Stage
When building the stage, there are 3 important aspects of the entire runway you would need to know:
- The Stage – the platform where the models enter from.
- The Runway – the long platform which extends to the audience.
- The ‘T’ – though not all layouts have this, it is basically an additional stage perpendicular to the runway to showcase the models.
Safety is also essential when constructing the runway. There are a couple of materials and tools needed to build the runway, such as a hacksaw, drills, welder, circular saw, sanders, to name a few. Upon building the stage, these materials and tools should be of good quality and suitable for the runway. For example, to ensure the smoothness of the runway platforms for the models to walk on, a good sander is required. Orbital sanders are usually the best option. There are quite a few orbital sander reviews you could take a look at before deciding to use one for the platform. Aside from that, a drill with a circular bit is needed to make the necessary holes for the poles. There are quite a few factors that should be taken to account upon building the stage, so be sure to know them all!
3. Play Around With The Lighting
You might think lighting does not really matter all that much, but frankly – it could make a whole lot of difference as to how the fashion show is being carried out. Certain shades of colour could affect the model’s clothes’ tones or colours – be it on live streams, photos, or videos. Neutral lights would be the best option to prevent the colour changes on the clothes. However, it would be best to look for a lighting company with vast experience handling fashion shows and outsource it to them. It would help save you a lot of time so you could focus on other aspects of the runway.
4. Go For Appropriate Backdrops
It goes without saying as to why backdrops exist in fashion shows, which is to cover the backstage, thus preventing the audience from seeing what happens behind the scenes. Ultimately, it is used to avoid being a distraction to the audience so that they will be laser-focused on the show. Most of the time, the basic options – flat panels and drapes are used as the backdrops so you could choose either one as your backdrop to design a successful fashion show stage.
All in all, be sure to create a setting that compliments the designer’s clothes. Get a clear picture of their expectations and you will be on your way to host one of the best fashion shows.
