With restrictions around gatherings due to COVID-19, student producers are taking adaptive approaches to planning a major fashion event, utilizing cutting-edge technical tools to move the traditional runway stage online.
This year’s Fashion Show will be presented as part of Accepted Students Day, on April 23. Now, newly admitted students and their families will be able to share in the experience regardless of where in the country—or the world—they are located.
Each aspect of the show will be designed and presented digitally, including the set and the styled looks themselves.
“The whole approach is completely different from what we’re used to, right down to the styling portion,” said Professor Terance Coffee, one of the show's faculty advisors. “Models are doing body scans that we’ll send to a production company, and our students are creating virtual worlds for each scene the models will showcase the collection in.”
Producing for the ‘small screen’ has led students to coordinate efforts even more than in previous years. In addition to holding regular styling, marketing, and production meetings via videoconference, an extra layer of collaboration has been added. Students from LIM's Visual Studies department have been enlisted by the Fashion Show team to work on the show’s digital elements, earning academic credit as part of Professor Grailing King's Interdisciplinary Project course.
“This virtual space is forcing our students to be more creative,” continued Professor Coffee. “A big takeaway from this is, if they’re someday working with a show producer who wants to take this route, these students will know how to do it.”
Watch LIM’s Virtual Fashion Show live on the College’s website at 7 p.m. on April 23.
