SHEFFIELD HALLAM X John Lewis AND PARTNERS

“Make John Lewis a lifestyle, not a choice.”

Sheffield Hallam University worked in collaboration with John Lewis and Partners Sheffield to create a fashion event which will aim to celebrate every human such as shape, race, sexuality and age. The event was aimed at the students situated within Sheffield to encourage them to shop at John Lewis and Partners, the event will also incorporate all departments of John Lewis and Partners such as beauty, technology, fashion and home furnishings. Multi faciliated activities will be one of the main focuses of the events as it will allow customers to engage with different acitivities in the John Lewis store to give the event a ‘Fun Festival Feel’.

My role for the night was to direct the choreography on the runway which was the main event of the night. Before the event I created floor plans and worked alongside model casting and music to create a visually exciting runway which would be featured on the 1st floor of the John Lewis and Partners store within Sheffield. Diversity was also a key aspect of the runway as all the models chosen by the Casting Team will have a wide range of diversity such as Race,Age, Gender and Sexuality which will be something the Choreography team will include in the runway event.

Before the runway was due to begin my role was to make sure that all models had been in hair and makeup and knew the route of the runway and the times they were meant to leave onto the runway. In additon to this, I also made sure certain models were carrying John Lewis products to fit with the theme of the runway event planned. All models were dressed and lined up in the back area of the fitting rooms which is where the models would leave to enter the beginning of the runway, as shown on floor plan.

Once the runway had began, my role was to keep track on the timings of the whole runway. 20 minutes was the time frame we had to keep within in order to keep in time with the music and the overall John Lewis and Partners event.The first walk of the models was estimated to last 10 minutes, as the models would walk individually on the runway with a small gap in between each models.The second walk of the models was also estimated to last 10 minutes, this involved the models to walk out in their set groups (who styled them) around the route of the runway into a centre area where a spokes person would then talk about the collection as a whole. Each group which was sent was within a time frame of 2 minutes and 30 seconds to keep within the 10 minute time scale I had planned.