> Project Description

Last Updated Thursday 15th February

Fêted for his commitment to creating provocative spectacles over mundane, workaday clothes, controversial young designer Gareth Pugh used the SHOWstudio live platform to stage a series of performances to mark Couture Week, the first week of July 2006. Each representing his attitude towards the different aspects of his whirlwind fashion career thus far, the afternoon broadcasts focused on themes of boredom and repetition, artifice and multiple personae, high-octane glamour and the falsity of easily-dealt acclaim. Of course, no Gareth Pugh project would be complete without the attendant, out of control party, which he threw to open the series. Gareth will also offered unprecedented access to the 'world of Gareth' in the run up to the live events. An ongoing image diary kept over June and captured via his trademark Polaroids, detailed the month in process and two documentary films shot by Gareth during a trip home to his native Sunderland provided a unique portrait of the designer's background and image world. As the final performances ran in parallel with Couture, Gareth agreed to open up his own construction process to scrutiny, whereby he contributed to our prestigious Designer_Download series, offering up a pattern for viewers to make up, style and photograph.

> Shows

Last Updated Thursday 21st September 2006

View Gareth Pugh's previous four collections shown during London Fashion Week -including his latest S/S '07 show- and his self-styled 'Haute Couture' television commercial for HSBC.

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> Performance Films

Last Updated Friday 8th September 2006

Man turns into human mirrorball then hairy poodle! Woman vomits black sick to a soul soundtrack as pulsating, pneumatic ball powers into action! On the face of it, Gareth Pugh’s five live, afternoon performances appear to consist of sensationalism, glamour and spectacle. But the dark themes at the heart of these six films and the sincerity of Pugh’s performances hint at a complex and slightly antipathetical relationship with the fashion system in which the designer finds himself.

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> Self Portrait Films

Last Updated Monday 4th September 2006

Sentimental journey. In the two months running up to his FASH-OFF performances, Gareth Pugh agreed to take the SHOWstudio video camera along on visits home to Sunderland and on a working trip to Cannes. These two intimate, diary-style shorts give a unique insight into the young designer’s visual world and how the seemingly unrelated worlds of home and work have some surprisingly interconnected strands.

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> Design_Download

Last Updated Wednesday 27th July 2006

The sixth installation of our prestigious downloadable pattern series, Gareth Pugh has contributed the template for his trademark inflatable balloons for the lucky SHOWstudio viewer base to make up for free! Our challenge to you is to download the pattern, make up the object using the instructions supplied and then use your balloon as a 'fashion brief', photographing it in as imaginative a way as you can muster, then sending the images to our gallery.

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> Design_Download Gallery

Last Updated Tuesday 9th January 2007

Having downloaded the pattern and constructed one of Gareth Pugh's trademark balls our viewers' are invited to send proof of their hard work here.

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> Performances

Last Updated Monday 3rd July 2006

MONDAY JUL.3
!WOWOW! PARTY
Together with the !WOWOW! collective, Gareth hosts an alchoholic tea party as part of The Architecture Foundation’s ‘Renegade City’ programme, featuring impromptu turns from a host of performers and friends.

TUESDAY JUL.4
HOUSE OF CARDS
Gareth will spend the matinée session building a house of cards.

WEDNESDAY JUL.5
HUMAN DISCO BALL featuring Alex Box
Make-up artist Alex Box will spend the afternoon turning Gareth into a human disco ball and once she’s done, the lights go on and we’ll give him a spin.

THURSDAY JUL.6
MAKE-UP-A-THON and BLACK BALL
For the first half of the matinée session, Gareth will conduct a non-stop make-up session and in the second half, Gareth will demonstrate the famous pneumatic ball that marked his first fashion show as part of the Fashion East showcase.

FRIDAY JUL.7
POODLE featuring Eugene Souleiman
Hair stylist Eugene Souleiman will turn Gareth into a human poodle, positioned on a chesterfield cushion like a real show dog.

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> Shoot and Post-production

Last Updated Today

Watch the creation of a giant, improvisatory image out of silver foil, balloons and twenty models by Nick Knight, Gareth Pugh and Nicola Formichetti via a series of video clips captured by Nick, direct from the set and then during the retouching process.

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> Polaroid Diary

Last Updated Wednesday 21st June 2006

Over the course of the two months running up to his live performances in July, we asked Gareth to keep a visual diary of his ideas and actions, recorded in his customary Polaroid prints. Each credited by him with its date and contents, the images reveal the cast of WOWOW! characters and a variety of industry events (from fashion parties and the Cannes film festival to a trip home to see his parents in Sunderland) that make up the colourful world of Gareth Pugh.

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> Pre-production Meeting

Last Updated Friday 16th June 2006

Watch a video stream of the all-important, first stage, pre-production meeting, attended by Gareth Pugh, Nick Knight, Penny Martin and Paul Hetherington on Tuesday 4th April, to witness the ideas develop into a project brief.

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> Press Clippings

Last Updated Wednesday Friday 16th June 2006

Read previous articles and interviews with Gareth Pugh from numerous publications including UK Vogue, The Independent and The Financial Times.

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> Project Blog

Shoot in recess - more tomorrow!

That's it for tonight. Antony, Hussein and the gang will be back in for more tomorrow morning.

By SHOWstudio, 20:26 Wednesday, 26 September

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