Tasked with lighting design across all the Carriageworks spaces, Paul Collison – also well known for his spectacular work on major event ceremonies - had a challenge on hand with the main venue being flipped multiple times during the week to accommodate different shows … and he chose 64 x Robe Spiider LED wash beams luminaires as his primary wash fixtures.

Being the ‘show-of-shows’ in Australia, designers’ creativity isn’t just limited to the clothes on runway …  set design, theming and other theatrics are incorporated into dramatic and invigorating performances ranging from 1980’s synth-pop inspired fun to break dancing to a delicate Japanese cherry blossom garden complete with falling petals!

Artistic flare and inspiration come from far and wide!

The show floor would need to look like a rock venue one minute and evolve into a theatre set the next with a completely different look and feel … sometimes only with an hour in between changeovers.

Due to this varied use of the space, he designed a “flexible and multipurpose system that would deal with the drastic changes sometimes also including the runway paths” outlined Paul.

“The Spiiders covered all the requirements in their colour range, from big saturated primaries to delicate understated pastels, and even tungsten emulation for key light features. Their zoom, pixel effects and unique flower / beam element added to the palette of effects” he stated.

The extravagant Camilla performance featured Japanese musicians, a tea ceremony and traditional dance among the models flaunting the latest designs on a bed of fresh cherry blossoms newly dropped from the trees! This required bathing in subtle pastel pinks and blues, as well as snapping to super-deep indigos and cobalts to create mood and a contrasting background during spot lit performances”.

Other shows like Bianca Spender featured super clean white light, while others like I.AM.GIA used a myriad of tricks with big rock looks, low fog, animated pixels and saturated reds. “That one was a lot of fun” commented Paul. “We had the freedom to use more of the toys on offer. For a wash lamp, Spiiders certainly have plenty of scope for imagination”.

All the MBFW shows were technically managed by Production Technologies with all lighting supplied by Chameleon Touring Systems.

Photo Credit: Getty Images