Moore College plans Parkway fashion show

Lights. Camera. Fashion show.

Did we mention there was a pretty big tent?

Students at Moore College of Art and Design will present end-of-year collections tonight under a 7,000-square-foot billowing edifice in Aviator Park off the Parkway.

The sold-out show and tomorrow morning's graduation ceremony will wrap up a yearlong celebration of the school's 160th anniversary.

Moore president Happy Fernandez chose to end the year in the epitome of style, replicating the setting of New York Fashion Week and turning the newly renovated and lush city park across from the school's main campus into a hip, happening runway.

"We have an absolutely perfect location right here," said Fernandez, who also serves as president of the Parkway Council. "It's an organic extension of what we do - not to mention it's a way to create excitement on the Parkway."

Preparing for the women's college's production has taken a small army of lighting technicians, builders, and event planners. For tonight's 8 o'clock presentation, 130 people will work the event, including 69 Moore students, faculty, and staff.

But the first challenge was picking the tent. The winner was one of Select Event Rentals' biggest models, the Navitrac, which will cost $25,000. The rental is almost completely covered by a birthday gift from sponsor Charming Shoppes.

"We had to pick a tent that fit in with the trees, the existing walkways, and sculpture, and give the fashion department what they needed to put on a great show," said Andrea Silva, Moore's assistant director of development.

As scaffolding sank into rain-soaked grass yesterday morning, union workers installed theater lights along a 110-foot truss at the tent peak, all under the direction of local lighting and audio specialists from Eventions Productions. (Note to Manolo-wearing fashionistas: Think twice about wearing spike heels this evening. You may sink like the scaffolds.)

Also installed were two 6-by-8-foot projection screens that will feature PowerPoint presentations flashing the names of each student designer. The stage will be washed in color as the models take the runway. Music will blast from a 26-speaker sound system.

"We have multiple speakers going through the tent, so you get the same level of sound at every point in the tent," Eventions owner Brian Toner said.

The light-gray runway (best for presenting clothes) stretches 88 feet; 788 chairs will line it.

And there's more.

Two other venues will connect to the main tent area, acting as men's and women's dressing rooms. The 35 models will slip in and out of clothes kept on dozens of rolling racks; there are more than 200 looks for this year's show.

Final collections, the bulk of which are from the seniors, are presented at a show every year, usually in a hotel ballroom, and most recently at the Sheraton in Society Hill.

The school's staff has been working on this year's presentation since last spring. Moore held its 160th convocation ceremony in August in a tent as sort of dress rehearsal for this weekend's festivities.

But for a fashion show, the tent needed to be more than double that size, to accommodate all the hoopla that comes with the staging of a high-energy production. The show will begin with a "sheroes" theme - think styles suitable for an Amazon - and end on a glamorous-goddess note. (How's that for girl power?) Bouquets of balloons in shades of blue, orange, yellow, and purple will hang throughout the tent.

Immediately after tonight's presentation, the seating, lighting, and audio will be reassembled for the nearly 900 guests expected for the commencement ceremony, scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

Not including the cost of the venue, last year's fashion show budget was around $33,000 for hair, makeup, models, and lighting, according to Janice Lewis, the fashion department chair. Minus the cost of tent, the school anticipates the total cost of producing this year's show won't be much more than it was last year, Fernandez said.

"It doesn't look like it will be a monsoon for us," she said.

But will the tent make the cut for next year's fashion show?

"We'll have to wait and see," Fernandez said. "Right now, it's an experiment."