Alexander McQueen, Katy England, Bobby Gillespie, Erin O'Connor and Nick Knight

Transformer

In July 2002 Nick Knight extended an invitation to friends and colleagues including Alexander McQueen, Erin O’Connor, Juergen Teller, Katy England and Bobby Gillespie to participate in 'Transformer', a SHOWstudio project that challenged each to devise an act of transformation that held personal significance for them, inspired by the continual metamorphic potential of fashion imagery.

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Watch the timelapse video of Nick Knight's June 2002 Transformer shoot alongside the real-time Q&A submissions from the viewing public

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About

Taking the metamorphic potential of fashion imagery and following this through to an extreme, in July 2002 Nick Knight extended an invitation to friends and colleagues including Erin O’Connor, Juergen Teller, Katy England and Bobby Gillespie to participate in Transformer, a SHOWstudio project that challenged each of these fashion creatives to devise and be filmed in an act of transformation that held personal significance for them.

While some performances were lighthearted, others provided meaningful insight into the different creative processes at play. This was the first fashion shoot to be broadcast live via webcam, revealing the working methodologies that underpin contemporary fashion image-making in real time. SHOWstudio’s viewers were invited to e-mail live questions to ‘interview’ the team of creatives on set about their ideas, motivations and progress, creating a two-way dialogue between the event and its audience.

Each performance was recorded in Polaroid stills, video footage and via webcam, allowing every aspect to be witnessed, during and after the event. The event is accompanied here by videos charting both the performances and the audience's reactions, and by an in-depth essay examining the 'cultural construction of gender' by academic and theorist Shaun Cole.

Credits / Contributors

Photography and direction: Nick Knight
Production: Phillippa Oakley-Hill
Styling: Simon Foxton and Jonathan Kaye
Hair: Sam McKnight at Premier
Make-up: Val Garland at Untitled
Manicure: Marian Newman at Premier
Casting: Darling Productions
Photographic assistance: Ben Dunbar-Brunton, Dom Cooper, Silvia Tchui
Styling assistance: Michelle Duguid
Technical Development: Chris Raettig
Location: Park Royal Studios
Music: Mileece, courtesy of Lo Recordings and open-ended. And Enseble, courtesy of Reflex and open-ended.

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