This is a unique Willy Wonka Austrian drape, with mismatched lift lines, and asymmetrical gathering. In true Katy Perry style there is an abundance of color movement action.

Photo by: Todd Kaplan

Three dimensional custom parachute cover for Katy Perry’s dramatic entry into the VH1 Salute the Troops show. This dramatic effect is best captured by the Daily Mail.

This is a digital print mixed media drop where all the windows were actually cut out, so under backlight the windows glowed, but as a front lit piece the gray tone palate gave a wonderful bold but mutli tasking surface (RE-touch).

Photo By: John Rios

A feature element of this stage design involved a 44 head kabuki solenoid system which controlled a variety of single and double kabuki backdrops. A kabuki drop is identified when a series of electronically fired solenoids are released simultaneously and the drapery drops gracefully to the ground revealing the scene behind.

The stage drapery was custom ordered and had to be durable, flame retardant, light weight and road worthy. Of the various cloths that were tested under studio conditions, the best projection image was achieved from a 'rain textured' silver polyester scrim-like cloth. We think you will agree that the final effect was spectacular!

Alice in Chains rental kabuki package provided by Rent What? Inc
Click here to read related press release
click here to view the related video
Photo By: "Iron" Mike Savoia  www.SavoiaPhotography.com

In yet another unique design, Dan Hadley (of Yeah Yeah Yeah’s fame amongst others….) combined lighting and set design in this unique light box staging combination. These pieces served more than just one function. When lit from within the opaque lining materials captured the light and allowed light to escape from the organic images only. When front lit - one discovered that they were sculpturally designed shapes with scenic treatments and burnt edges. The four unique elements were aged and dramatic. The light boxes were framed and had easy-on easy-off enclosures which we designed around the lighting and framing parameters.

Click here to view the related video

Project: Cut drop for Lady Gaga Tour, Europe & Australia
Fabric: Digitally Printed Airtex / 15oz Encore Velour / Black

We were exited, and challenged, when we were asked to produce this extremely unique mixed media backdrop for Lady Gaga. Designed by Ray Woodbury of RK Diversified, this piece combined a variety of stage effects and various textiles. The lower graphic area was direct printed onto Airtex. The cut drop was created by inserting areas of tiger mesh. Hidden smoke lines added live exhaust to the city skyline and a front projection screen build into the graphic brought the printed billboard to life. Over 200 LED lights were hardwired to illuminate "the fame machine" sign giving this custom piece lots of interest and dramatically framing the stage. A dramatic backdrop for a dynamic artist!

Project: Chris Cornell at the Wiltern (Los Angeles)
Fabric: Crushed Screen Mesh / Aluminum

For Chris Cornell's concert at the Los Angeles Wiltern Theatre the band's management turned to Rent What? { www.rentwhatinc.com }  to provide a one of a kind rock-drop. This spectacular crushed mesh drape from the "Industrial Textures Rental Series" gave the lighting designer a textured palette which resulted in some amazing looks.

Rent What? is exclusively representing unique and unusual drapery and mixed media pieces produced by Sew What? Inc.  To learn more about their inventory of unique backdrops and masking drapes visit them on the web at www.rentwhatinc.com

Project: Britney Spears Tour
Fabric: Fabric: 22oz Encore Velour / Black

Sew What? was flattered to be invited to be a part of the Britney Spears Tour softgood package. One of the biggest tours of the season Sew What? partnered with a variety of other premium providers to produce a tremendous amount of drapery in a relatively short period of time. Sew What? was responsible for producing nearly 1000 feet of customized truss borders as well as a variety of under stage and behind stage masking for the "in the round" stage.  22oz Encore Velour was selected by Production Manager Bobby Allen as a cross-vendor fabric due to it's durability, opacity and inherent flame retardant properties.

Project: Janet Jackson Tour
Fabric: IFR Polyester Muslin / Black

Several mid and upstage kabuki drapes were used to separate the stage for preshow acts. In this case where a reasonable amount of opacity was required IFR Poly Muslin was chosen. While light enough to drop gracefully when the solenoids are released, the polyester muslin offers the durability needed for daily use while on tour. Rent What? Inc is pleased to represent a line of Kabuki Drapes (both single and double drop) produced in this tourable and durable fabric.

Janet Jackson’s rental drapery package provided by Rent What? Inc

Photo By: Steve Jennings

Project: George Michael Tour
Fabric: 15oz Encore Velour / Black

Designer Benoit Richards approached us with this classic and clean design for the George Michael tour. Rather than the common “truss and lights” focus, the concept here was to visually simplify the rig and dress it theatrically to create a finished and clean proscenium. The trusses were masked with 15oz Encore Velour borders with 50% fullness for a rich and traditional feel. An excellent IFR option, the 15oz Encore Velour offered opacity without the added weight or cost of a lining. The customized border package was complimented by an Arena Masking Drape Rental Package from Rent What? Inc.

George Michael’s rental drapery package provided by Rent What? Inc

Photo By: Steve Jennings

Project: Sheryl Crow Tour
Fabric: 8oz Supervel / Atomic Red; Satin / various neutral tones

By utilizing 8oz Supervel, an inherently flame retardant fabric which is light weight and yet durable, we were able to create a viable touring stage drapery set that satisfied the productions need for “user friendly’ and the artists desire for “rich and dramatic”. All the elements drop into hampers and pull out for tie off at the next venue – everything was made to be installation friendly. The main bi-parting pair of drapes was on a 260 series traveler track and when opened revealed the satin “blow through” drape seen in these photos.

The Satin blow through drape was designed on a mesh backing so that when fans were applied to the back side the various satin elements moved and created water like rippling effects. It was very dramatic when lit – a variety of both crushed and non-crushed materials were used and the colors chosen were natural tones, allowing for a wide variety of colors to be used when lighting.

click here to view the related video
Photo By: Chris Hudson

Project: Rod Stewart Tour
Fabric: Topically Treated Voile

One of our favorite acts – Rod Stewart returns to Sew What? Inc for his 2008 stage draperies. The look was very clean and classic, compared to the thematic design of the Rod Stewart 08 stage drapes. Best of all we were thrilled to learn that the entire stage would be all drapes! The sheer voile drapes appear opaque with the front lighting and take the lighting effects beautifully. We utilized an oversized pleating method and pushed over 200% fullness into the drapes to add dimension and interest. Sew What? Inc was pleased to provide the client with a full package including the white voile drapes, various masking drapes, as well as three touring traveler tracks.

click here to view the related video

Project: Kenny Chesney Tour
Fabric: Direct Print to PES Banner 24

To achieve one of the most impressive reveals seen on the road this year – we participated in the automation of a digitally printed wide format backdrop by way of attachment to a custom SGPS ShowRig Motorized Lift System. With 120 linear feet of printed media – the center section of over 80 feet of backdrop was flawlessly and gracefully raised when 13 lift lines were operated. When fully raised the drape stacked neatly up in front of the truss above while the artist performed – ready to drop again at the end of the show. For this particular project where the client wanted “luminescence” when backlit we selected a 16 foot wide substrate with a direct print – PEW Banner 420. This substrate provided good color saturation and gives the image a projected appearance in a backlit scenario.

click here to view the related video
Photo By: Ed Wannebo, Production Manager.

Project: James Taylor Tour
Fabric: Silver Iridescent Silky Charmeuse

This stage scene we produced for James Taylor is unique, as it was created over a two tour period. The first tour produced three truss borders and one short saction of silver drapery seen in the background. The look and feel of the first tour worked so well that the production designers and artist chose to add elements to fill out the scene for the second and subsequent tour. We added a second Austrian drape which plays vertically above the original to add height and additionally created legs and borders in the 16oz Princess velour to add to the layers and drama of the setting.

click here to view the related video

Project: Kelly Clarkson Tour
Fabric: 22oz Encore Velour and Iridescent Silky Charmeuse

A tour which is booked to perform in medium sized theatres often poses a challenge to designers and producers. Unlike an arena where you bring your own ground support (and know your trim height etc) in a theatre setting you are at the mercy of the stage parameters of each venue.
Producer Ray Woodbury of RK Diversified overcame this challenge by creating a design which could be incrementally shortened – in either height or width – for this tour. Upstage a series of five free-hanging projection screens were designed with soft fabric borders at the bottom, giving them over 5 feet of flexibility n height. Additionally, as the screens were independent, crew could drop a unit in width (down to four screens) when the venue required them to.

Utilizing the inherent flexibility of an Austrian Drape at mid stage, crew could easily shorten the feature drapery without spoiling the effect of the curtain. The photos of this production are gorgeous, doing justice to a talented singer as well as a clever and versatile design.

click here to view the related video
Photographs by:Todd Kaplan

Project: Soul In The Machine

Check out this great photo! – not often granted the opportunity to take photos with the stars……. The artists who are “Soul In The Machine” stopped for a moment to pose with Megan Duckett and Gerilyn Gregory of Sew What? Inc. while checking out the company’s trade show booth at a recent convention. Visit them online at: www.soulinthemachine.com

Photographs by: Photo Credit Soul In The Machine (www.soulinthemachine.com)

Project: Dierks Bentley Kabuki
Fabric: Dye Sublimation to Heavy Weight Poly Poplin

“You need a 30’h x 60’w in how many days?” …………….Production staff from Deirks Bentley knew where to call when they needed digital printing services for their tour. Dye sublimation to Heavy Weight Poly Poplin gave us the saturation of color required to really hit the CK and process blues in this logo embedded artwork. As it was to be used as a kabuki drop down stage and there were obvious vertical break lines in the art, we chose to produce the item with vertical seams which disappeared into the artwork.

Photographs by: Todd Ortmeier

Project: Hannah Montana Tour
Fabric: Commando Cloth and Poly Poplin

Finding the balance between the “look” desired by designers and the “durability” needed by production staff led us to produce the Hanna Montana masking and dressing room draperies from a combination of fabrics. All areas which were to be high traffic with lots of dancers (and cosmetics!) were produced from washable yet durable, Poly Poplin. The front of house masking was then produced from durable and economical 16oz Commando Cloth.

Making the drapes which mask “behind the scenes” may seem low profile to some suppliers, but we see it as a challenge – the magic of the show would not be nearly as captivating if the “mechanics” were visible to the audience. At Sew What? Inc we take masking draperies seriously!

Photographs by: M Duckett

Project: Rod Stewart Still The Same Tour
Fabric: 100% Cotton Poplin / Traditionally Drum Printed with the Stewart Family tartan
22oz Encore Velour for all black masking drapes.

When audiences come to see Rod Stewards 2007 tour, they are met by a 360-degree stage completely enclosed by 160 linear feet of the Stewart Family tartan.

The challenge was to translate the 2 x 2 tartan pattern into 1,500 yards of larger than life stage curtain. We experimented with a number of fabrication techniques, said Sew What? president Megan Duckett. We considered digital printing and custom painting, but they didnt produce the results we were after. The Sew What? team settled on traditional garment printing methods utilizing four 60 ink drums. Once the ink was dry, the material was sent through a separate flame-retardancy process in preparation for sewing.

Learn more about the designers vision for this tour by reading the related press release.
See it in action. Click here or here.

click here to view the related video
Design: Ian Knight / Lars Brogaard
Photographs by: Jim Steinfeldt

Project: Digitally Printed Backdrop for The New Cars
Fabric: Digitally Printed Heavy Knit

Isn't this a great shot? And let me tell you - The New Cars sure did put on a good show. This photo is from their performance at the House of Blues show on Sunset Blvd.

Our multi-tasking digitally printed backdrop hangs behind them for personalisation and displays their logo with clarity. With so many different substrates to choose from there is a digital backdrop for every band no matter the budget.
Photo by: Jim Steinfeldt

Project: Hand Painted Scrim Drop for Scott Stapp Tour
Fabric: Black Sharkstooth Scrim

Click on the image to get a great shot of the scrim being painted. The 40'w x 24'h scrim was hand painted with the artists custom design. A combination of paints in varying degrees of intensity gave an overall texture to the scrim. The logo was carefully painted to show the detail of the the cherokee text and design as seen in the original artist rendering.

Did You Know? A scrim is a commonly used piece of stage curtain magic. Learn More.

Project: Studio and Window Draperies for artist Prince
Fabric: White Leno Filled Scrim

This call came in on a Sunday - Designers for the temporary residence of artist Prince required sound absorbant draperies for the windows and studio in the Hollywood home. The large quantity of draperies were designed, quoted and delivered within 3 days!

The most exciting moment of course (aside from the opportunity to work on a project for such a high profile artist) was that the home was then used as the setting for the album / CD insert! So there we are - Sew What? Inc in, and on, Prince's album titled "3121".

Project: Kid Rock Tour
Fabric: 22oz Crimson Encore

As always we were totally excited to be asked to manufacture the draperies for Joe Gallagher of Accurate Staging. This project for Kid Rock included upstage drapes, stage and riser skirting as well as all the hampers necessary to house the softgoods.

Manufacturing insight:: All the skirting was sewn with both a webbing reinforcement at top and a 2" durable velcro for easy atachment to the risers. The upstage drapes were broken down into 20 foot widths to make folding and hanging easier and more manageable!

Project: Sting
Fabric: Black Ripstop

A basic white cyc and four legs is all it took to create this dynamic stage set. The lighting could vary the look of the stage scene dramatically with this type of drapery arrangement. The upstage areas were designed for both projection and cyc lighting.

Designed by: Bruce Rogers of Tribe Design
Photo by: Todd Kaplan