Q&A: 'Lumineux' Director Britt Lloyd

To mark the occasion of MoMu’s P.LACE.S - Looking through Antwerp Lace exhibition, the fashion museum of Antwerp asked SHOWstudio to create an artistic intervention for the show. Britt Lloyd responded with a poetic, black-and-white fashion film for the St Charles Borromeo Church, which boasts the most important collection of lace from the 17th and 18th centuries in Antwerp. Styled by Charlotte Roberts, the models wear lacy garments by the likes of Alexander McQueen, Iris van Herpen, Jo Miller & Marta Jakubowski, Maison Margiela and Simone Rocha.

Lloyd spoke with Violet Conroy about her fondness of dancers, obsession with lace, and the delights of mixing old fashion with the new.

Violet Conroy: What was the brief you received from MoMu for this fashion film? And your initial thoughts on what you were going to create?

Britt Lloyd: The brief was really to show how designers today use lace, and explore the variation in techniques which have been able to expand due to the technologies available. My initial thoughts were to create a very delicate film, but using quite modern, technical garments to juxtapose that with a hardness.

VC: You've got choreography from Benjamin Milan in this fashion film. Why do you incorporate dance and movement into your work?

BL: For me, dancers are such a wonderful subject to film and photograph. They naturally create such fluid and interesting shapes, and combining that with these incredible garments, creates very organic sculptures, the hybrid of the dancer and the fashion.

VC: Do you have a particular fondness for lace?

BL: Lace was always the foundation for the film. I soon became very interested in the opacity of it, the ability to use light to develop shadows and create a sense of translucency and opacity. It was as though the lace was creating organic patterns and light paintings itself.

VC: You've got amazing fashion from the likes of Alexander McQueen, Iris van Herpen, Jo Miller & Marta Jakubowski, Maison Margiela and Simone Rocha. What was the process of working with your stylist Charlotte Roberts like?

BL: Charlotte Roberts has such a modern view of what fashion is today. She always combines more traditional fashion houses such as Alexander McQueen, with really interesting young designers such as Jo Miller. She always brings something that you would never expect.

VC: You often shoot in black and white. Why?

BL: I prefer the tonality of black and white, and find it more adaptable to help convey the mood of the image. For me, it is much more emotional and feels like a natural path for my work in what I am trying to say.