In September I was thrilled to be asked to make the backstage artists lounge at Listen Out Festival more glamorous than it had been in previous years.
In under a week I delivered a ‘perceived luxury’ space for international and local artists to recline in comfortably.
The headline acts were Future, What So Not, Mac Miller, Bryson Tiller, SAFIA, Duke Dumont & Pnau). So, no pressure.
The project was the realisation of a dream I’ve always had to style a music festival environment.
The brief
Build up basic black sofas with sheep skins/faux fur, pillows and throws to help make the area feel warm.
Flowers for food and coffee points – on the twiggy side with some white (minimal colour vibes), small arrangements for tables (pending on cost) + something to ship the stuff in.
The props
I was handed a suitcase of stuff to sort through. Some of it was broken, and some I deemed unusable, but it was an excellent challenge to add to what was already there. I loved these supplied cage votives, so they were the starting point.
My curveball moment throughout the week was trying to answer the brief of ‘pretty much black everything’ with what was actually available on the shelves. I reverted to my usual, Tom Ford is always the basis for good style decisions mantra, with success and pops of textured excitement. I always style fluently in gold. It comes from within and my home is drenched in it.
The space
Even though I had seen preliminary pics of the space, I realised pretty quickly that it was going to be interesting to convert what we know of dressing a single couch in a living room to say, multiple sofas out in the sun, under palm trees in a bar. Jai helped me lay out all the props, then identify the most visible parts of the VIP lounge. All that was left was to ply on the soft furnishings, arrange the flowers and weave the gold.
The Garb Wire 
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