> Blog (May 2006)

Wednesday 31 May 2006

THE SOUND OF CLOTHES: ANECHOIC: Project Launched!

By a way of a trailer for tomorrow's live sound shoot, we have launched the Anechoic project, complete with the 'noisy wardrobe' we will be using for your advance perusal. Our new intern Anna Gudbrandsdottir has been in today, photographing each sample garment as it arrives. As homework, get a load of Stella McCartney's maxi sequinned dress and try imagining what kind of jangle those will produce!

By Penny Martin, 18:15 Wednesday, 31 May  |  Click to view this project

THE SOUND OF CLOTHES: ANECHOIC: LIVE 'COLLECTIONS STORY BY SOUND' EVENT TOMORROW

The potential for experimention is so wide with a site like ours and the workload so intense that we have had to accept that some of our craziest, most outlandish ideas for projects have 'fallen between two stools' as it were. This was certainly the case with an initial thought we had when I first came to SHOWstudio; to do a shoot 'through sound', where the interpretation of garments would be led by their audio characteristics, rather than their visual appearance. That pitch was made nearly five years ago and though the legendary 'Sound of Clothes' series has often come up in meetings since, we had long lost in hope of this ambitous and eccentric project ever happening...

Until now!! It is with breathless excitement (and some anxiety) that I announce that at last, the much anticipated recording session will take place. TOMORROW. The full proceedings occuring in the hemi-anechoic chamber (pictured) at the National Physical Laboratory's will be broadcast live on the site. From 10:00—17:00 hrs BST you will be able to watch (and hear!) us working with model Zora Star to record the intimate audio characteristics of a range of materials from soft, organic substances like feathers, velvet, jacquard and leather to the harder, man-made sequins, glass crystals, nylons, zips and plastic bead fringes.

Our intial tests (blogged on the 11th May) produced some amazing -and alarming- results, but they were only based on fabric samples. Tune in tomorrow to hear what it sounds like when those substances have been fashioned into beautiful garments by Alexander McQueen, Christian Dior, Giles Deacon, Hermès, Maison Martin Margiela, Miu Miu, Stella McCartney, Richard Nicoll, Prada or Undercover!

By Penny Martin, 16:48 Wednesday, 31 May  |  Click to view this project

Thursday 11 May 2006

THE SOUND OF CLOTHES: ANECHOIC: Sound of Clothes: Preliminary tests

In preparation to the second installment to our 'Sound of Clothes' season of projects we have been busy selecting garments from the A/W '06-7 collections that we think will make interesting sound recordings for our 'sound based collections story'. After whittling the list down to a manageable fifteen (we only have one day at the anechoic chamber), the technical sound experts at the National Physical Laboratory have agreed to carry out sounds tests in the hemi-anechoic chamber on our behalf. Instead of sending over the designer garments, Penny and I spent yesterday morning trying to locate similar samples of substances -including rubberised PVC (!), feathers, gold lamé and sequinned chains- which were today carefully labelled and sent off to the laboratory in Teddington.

By Studio, 15:33 Thursday, 11 May  |  Click to view this project

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