In the North East there are a host of excellent local companies. The strength of an exhibition is in the people we work with and we were delighted when the Bowes Museum, on the recommendation of their designers, Blue The Design Company, contacted us to help us with their current exhibition Catwalking: Fashion through the Lens of Chris Moore.
We are based in Colburn, and love getting the opportunity to work with local business and organisations to create bespoke promotional materials to help organisations stand out from the crowd.
The exhibition, which runs until 6 January, looks at fashion through the lens of the undisputed king of catwalk photography, Chris Moore. Chris has been at the forefront of fashion for six decades and the exhibition combines his photography with a large selection of original outfits kindly lent to The Bowes Museum by some of the world’s leading fashion houses.
For the exhibition the Bowes Museum needed large banners to be hung throughout the building, showcasing the work of the fashion designers that feature in the exhibition, including Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Louis Vuitton and Vivienne Westwood.
The first discussions revolved around the technicalities of trying to successfully reproduce such stunning imagery on a large scale. Julian Smyth-Osbourne, our Managing Director, visited the Bowes and talked through a wide range of options with the team. Not only were the graphics very large but they also needed to be ‘free hanging’ and partially translucent; giving the illusion of the image being in the background whilst endorsing the actual garment on display.
Once there was a shortlist of materials, sample print work was undertaken and put in place at the museum to test for suitability; this included looking at the hang as well as the translucency of the material, and of course the print quality. As Julian said,
“It was imperative we got the fabric selection right at this stage, and we did. Lightweight voile received the casting vote”.
With the fabric selected, we could move into the next phase. Each graphic had to be custom made which posed challenges, as Julian says.
“We usually make more standard products, so to see our printed work at the Catwalking exhibition at The Bowes Museum has been a real highlight of this year, so far,” he added.
Echoing Julian’s comments, Judith Carlisle said:
“We were delighted to have been approached by The Bowes Museum to be involved with this project. It is an incredibly high profile event and we created something beautiful and unique.”
If you haven’t already, we encourage you to visit the Bowes Museum to view this fantastic exhibition!