Anthem To Ribbon

I have a small black and white picture of myself sitting at a desk in my first year of school. Apart from being a black and white image (something all design-minded people prefer) I love it because my mother has scraped my hair to one side and tied the tightest satin bow she could tie. Every morning my hair was tied with ribbons in a similar way; some variations were allowed – maybe pigtails, headbands or ponytails. Fortunately for me, my mother was a style hunter and fashion lover extraordinaire, who, to this day, cites her all time favourite fashion purchase as a black antelope beret bought at Le Louvre in Collins Street in Melbourne on her honeymoon. Within a few years I had amassed a huge pile (mess) of ribbons: Swiss cotton velvets, French double-faced satins, textured grosgrains and petit grains.

And so my love and fascination with ribbons began – not with the zest of a self-obsessed collector – rather as an admirer of their beauty and brilliance as a decorative exclamation. What started as an appreciation became a ‘signature’ design tool embraced throughout my working life. I suspect I may have purchased or specified over one million metres of ribbon for numerous design projects.

Our work in temporary event and set environments could be considered to be at the decorative or ‘lightweight’ end of the design spectrum. Lucky us. The creative and commercial freedom of this area of design is unlimited and inspiring. So it was with some excitement and slight concern (would this be considered a design piece or a tragic craft project?) when I thought that the centrepiece of a fashion catwalk (LMFF 2006) might be a chandelier made almost entirely from black French satin ribbon.

With the blessing and encouragement of my favourite sponsors and immediate collaborators – Divine Show producer Yolanda (“I don’t have to worry about this, do I?”) and my dearest graphic designer (detail queen and my niece, I’m proud to say), we set about creating a chandelier five metres wide by six metres high for an audience of 10,000 people over a week.

The under-structure was a hexagon made from a super lightweight aluminium from which hung 1.5 kilometres of our favourite black French double-faced satin, hand-sewn and hung in 325 separate pieces with laser cut diamonds of perspex as end pieces. The chandelier took six hours to install and weighed only 268 kilograms. Our modern drama was hung. Super scale, commanding, iconic.

Its tight graphic geometry and gravity meant each ribbon – normally flimsy and soft – became straight, architectural and steel like. Who could have imagined such strength and drama could come from such a ‘lightweight’ design project!

First published in Inside Magazine.

Collage by Liz Wilson