From a multi-faceted room of mirrors to an anodized aluminum forest, some intensely cool environments were created for New York’s BOFFO building fashion 2011, a series of collaborations celebrating up-and-coming architects and cutting-edge fashion designers. These collaborations took shape as pop-up stores, temporary retail venues, on Walker Street in Tribeca this fall, from September through November, and were lit by Focus Lighting using a variety of borrowed gear, including moving lights and LEDs.
“Each one is a unique collaboration between an architect, a fashion designer, and the lighting designers,” states Brett Andersen, a principal at Focus Lighting, who explains that these projects were extremely low budget. “Almost everything was donated,” he adds, thanking Altman Lighting (Bob Altman), High End Systems (Darin Fowler), and The Lighting Group (Scott Thurm) for the gear.
Gage/Clemenceau architects collaborated with Nicola Formichetti, fashion director for Lady Gaga, creative director for Mugler, and fashion stylist to Uniqlo, on the first of these pop-up shops. “It was a very energetic space filled with hundreds of mirrors and eventually a lot of color and movement in the moving lights,” notes Andersen. Three High End Systems’ Intellaspots were programmed on the HES Road Hog Full Boar console, with an HES FQ-100 fog generator adding to the disco feel of the room. Acolyte linear LED strips, Juno Lighting 12 LED Mini-Cylinder spotlights, WAC MR16 track lighting, and Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlast 12 RGB LED floodlights completed the lighting system.
Architect Mark Fornes designed a sculptural environment in gold and laser-cut anodized brushed aluminum for Fibulae, the second of the pop-up-shops, featuring jewelry by LA-based designer Irene Neuwirth. “The environment was like a tree canopy over a golden jewel you stumble across in a forest,” explains Andersen, who points out that 15 50W halogen bi-pin peanut lamps were simply taped to the interior of the sculpture to add sparkle and cast shadows on the floor and walls. Juno Lighting LEDs, e:cue Butler four-channel dimmer packs, Altman Lighting Spectra CYC color-changing LEDs, PAR56s, and AR111 pin spots were mounted in the ceiling to light the walls and the jewelry.
“With the donations, we spent no more than $500 on each installation,” says Andersen. “The challenge was in finding ingenious, yet inexpensive ways of adding light to bring out the true beauty of both the products and the created environment.”