For the fifth consecutive year, Mauritz Jacobs from Dream Sets oversaw the project and was also the lighting designer of this spectacular event which included 20 fashion shows, over 25 designers and elaborate set changes on two fashion ramps.
"This is probably one of the hardest weeks of the year," commented Jacobs. "There are set changes between every show and these are major changes! The one show will be white and an hour later the ramp will be red." The shows are about 20minutes long and there's a show every hour.
The set-up started on 4 March with each day beginning at 6am and usually ending after midnight. Dream Sets provided a 500 KVA generator for the air conditioning units used to cool the tents, a 200 KVA generator for the technical supply and a 200kVA generator for the kitchen and dressing room areas (aircons). "We supplied everything including power to the laptops, ramps, AV in the VIP tents and plasmas," explained Mauritz. Rehearsals were held in the morning and the shows took place from 6pm each day.
"It was hectic and I was limited with weight restrictions but the end result was awesome," said Jacobs. He used 72 Philips Selecon SPX units and 36 Source Fours. Each ramp had a 35m truss, one purely with SPXs, the other a mixed bag of Source Fours and SPXs. One of the sets also included Robin 600s to up-light the models. "They were awesome," he said.
Each of the fashion designers worked with one of four show producers, the big names in the industry such as Jan Malan, Mary Reanolds, Deon Redman. The producers presented their designs and ideas for their sets to Dream Sets, and Sean Hoey and his team ensured that every detail was meticulously carried through.
Two sets of crew worked on Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Joburg. Mauritz commended his team saying they were hard workers and absolutely fabulous.
(Jim Evans)
