London-based duo Silent Studios on the importance of music in fashion shows

If you were lucky enough to have been at British designer Anya Hindmarch’s SS14 show at London Fashion Week, you’ll have been in for a big surprise. As the models walked coolly up and down the catwalk in Anya’s signature designs the lights slowly began to fall, and a fun electronic musical accompaniment made way for an ethereal swathe of sound. Slowly, a series of giant planetary orbs moved into place above the audience and the bags suspended from the ceiling rose to meet them, while two aerialists swung gracefully from one star to another in a luxurious and otherworldly display of astronomy meeting fashion.

Unsurprisingly, the audience was completely enchanted, and the richness of this experience – mystical and supernatural, and in stark contrast to many of the less fantastical shows which take place during fashion week – was due in no small part to Silent Studios, which created the music for it.

Made up of Liam Paton and Nathan Prince, Silent Studios is an east London-based design, direction and music studio which creates bespoke image and sound experiences. They’ve been working together for over ten years now, and over this time they’ve come to a decidedly unique way of working on music projects. “We have developed a close, collaborative approach,” composer Liam Paton explains to me, "especially when it comes to fashion projects.

“With a catwalk show, we are working with a designer who’s been developing their collection for a long time, so we need to absorb as much as we can [from them] about the mood and atmosphere they are trying to create with the show. We have to go on a bit of a journey with the designer to work out where to position the music. We need to get inside their head to be in a position to suggest appropriate styles and tones of music. Only once we are completely clear about the approach and direction of the music do we start to compose.”

For an industry which invests so much time, money and energy in the presentation of its new collections each season, music remains surprisingly overlooked by many designers, who prefer a mixtape thrown together at the last minute to a considered, custom-made approach. “Music can so often be a rushed after-thought, but it can completely alter the tone and mood of a show,” Liam explains. “It can challenge, it can make the audience feel any number of emotions. So it feels like a missed opportunity if the music isn’t considered properly.”

It’s all the more important considering the density and duration of shows during fashion week, when many fashion editors and journalists spend a month travelling from venue to venue to pack in hundreds of shows one after the other. “Music is a completely emotive sense, so it’s your most useful tool if you want to change the mood of the audience or transport them to somewhere different for ten to 12 minutes,” he continues. “I’m not sure it can make or break how a collection is perceived, but I think it could help you stand out from the crowd, and make the show more meaningful or memorable.”

With fashion shows growing to be such all-encompassing experiences it’s not only the collection that Liam and Nathan must fit with – they also have the set design, lighting and production to consider. “It’s great to work as closely as possible with all the different disciplines and teams that make up a show,” Liam continues. “We’ve worked on a number of shows where there have been key moments [in set or lighting] that the sound needs to sync to. I think the most successful shows are when everything feels and moves as one, where you don’t really think about the different areas as individual components but feel the experience as a whole.”

In this respect, the aforementioned Anya Hindmarch show was something of a dream to be involved in – the concept behind it called for a fully bespoke soundtrack. “The show was being approached as if it were a scene in a feature film, and there were a number of cue points we needed to hit at key moments. This meant that licensed or sourced music was too restrictive and didn’t give us the build at the right points or in the right amount of time. By creating something from scratch, we could control the mood from start to finish and be quite detailed in how we wanted the audience to feel at any given moment. It was a lot of work but ultimately rewarding, as the reaction to the show was brilliant.”

For a couple of years now fashion designers have become increasingly broad-minded about how important music can be to that initial experience of a collection – an exciting prospect for a creative duo like Silent Studios. “I think more people are starting to realise that a mixtape of songs doesn’t cut it anymore,” Liam tells us. “This could be Burberry and the use of live musical performances within their shows, or it could be that DJs and music supervisors are putting more time and thinking into their choice of music to reflect the collection. As I said before, it feels like a missed opportunity if people don’t put time into the music, and it’s always nice to see a shift. People are realising the importance of the music, rather than it being an after-thought.” 

Art + Music

This month we will be looking at the infinite, somewhat holy connection between art and music in all its different genres. Spanning an enormous amount of ways music and art come together, this feature will take a closer look at stage design, record sleeves, music videos, zines, rock star painters, band merchandise, music at fashion shows and much, much more. Now put your hands together for Art + Music.