I know, I’m not a student any more, so it was a bit cheeky of me to get asked to shoot the annual MODO show again. Still, I couldn’t exactly say no – and there were still a couple of people I know in it!

With the most outrageous designer from the past few years not showing anything, there was never going to be the same wow factor I used to expect, but there were still some amazing designs. As my girlfriend pointed out to me, many of the clothes this year were even sporting such features as linings – so the production values were certainly up from when she used to be in the show.

After a hiatus at the Russell Hotel last year, the show was back in the UCL cloisters, and, much to my relief, finally lit decently. In previous years I’ve had to time shots to when models moved into lit areas of the catwalk, and multi-model shots were hit and miss as to whether they were all lit or half dark.

This shot is part of ‘The Kate Middleton Collection’, which was also featured on BBC London news.

What makes this show unique is that UCL doesn’t do fashion degrees – all the designers and models are studying for academic qualifications. The show programme highlighted studies as diverse as PhD Greek, PhD Neuropsychology, Modern Languages and Archaeology.

As usual, you can see a greater selection on Flickr, and those of you lucky enough to know me on facebook can see every single outfit in a rather large album over there.

Even though the UCLU Modo fashion society faced quite a few setbacks this year – their traditional venue within UCL was unavailable except at reading week, when no one would be around, and alternative venues were both ridiculously expensive and available for just one night, rather than their usual two, they pulled ‘The Green Fashion Show’ off spectacularly.

The Russell Hotel was a quite brilliant venue, and (from my point of view) the lighting was much better this year. Well, I say much better – I really mean there was some improvement. There was still a massive dark spot halfway down the runway, which happened to coincide with exactly where the models had been instructed to stop and pose… Luckily, the end of the runway was pretty well lit, and my new Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 wasn’t exactly unhelpful.

Unfortunately the for-one-night-only show this year meant I couldn’t cover both backstage and the runway, although I managed a few shots of models dressing and being made-up before the show started. Nor this year – it being a Sunday, when I was editing a whole bunch of shots from Celebrating Streatham – could I get a timelapse done of the set-up: being in an external venue for just one day meant a 6am start for the crew, and probably a similar finish the next morning!

I’ll get a gallery up when I’m not quite so busy – for now, this shot should suffice to illustrate what in the end was the best Modo show I’ve seen over the past four years.

Far fewer photos this time – no pressure to capture every single outfit – but some stunning images nonetheless from backstage at Modo‘s Elements fashion show. These were taken on the first night, 27th Feb, when by all accounts the stage lighting was slightly amiss. Luckily words were had and the Saturday night was much better lit for my photos of the catwalk itself.

The image above is of model Grace Barnett being fitted into one of Modo President Katie Jackson’s outfits in the second half of the show and is one of my favourite images from the two days.

Check the gallery below for more fantastic images of the backstage process, from hair and make-up to models coming fresh off the catwalk. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s that time of year again, when the UCL Fashion Society, or Modo as it’s more commonly known, holds its annual fashion show. They’re they only student fashion society in the country (apart from Central St Martin’s, which has a fashion course – UCL doesn’t!) that holds a show entirely composed of students. All the designers are students. All the models are students. The stage is built and lit by students. It is also, of course, photographed by students. (Albeit one of whom could afford to have two D40s around his neck!)

The theme of this year’s show was ‘Elements’, although some designers took this more seriously than others. One designer even had one of the models sewing his collection together on the first night – but that’s not to say that the whole show didn’t look pretty awesome for a bunch of lazy students being in charge. It was quite telling that the timelapse I shot of the stage being constructed involved a lot of inaction… Read the rest of this entry »