It’s a 17-act show, with 24 actors, 14 dressers, assorted hairstylists and makeup artists, a handful of other helpers, the head of a modeling agency and a couple of fashion designers squeezed in a one-hour frenzy.
Onstage, models confidently showcase fashion’s future, prancing beneath hot lights to an ear-numbing mix of vamp vocals and the unctuous voice of the master of ceremonies.
Backstage, the participants battle for room in a dimly lighted, 15-by-25-foot temporary space with thick black curtains for walls. Runway models in stages of zip and unzip are jammed into two narrow aisles between three long racks stuffed with next season’s coverings.
A total of 158 garments are featured. Each model has up to eight quick changes. Slinky women pull off layers from the previous run, confer in muted tones with dressers who stand ready to fold them into the new. Assistants brush hair, tie shoes and give a final primp (time elapsed: two to five minutes) before sending the models back to await their cues.
This is what the 1,600 people in the luncheon-fashion show audience–each of whom has paid $85 for a ticket–don’t see at the 42nd Annual Gold Coast Fashion Award Show at the Chicago Hilton & Towers. The event, one of the most prestigious of the year, is sponsored by the Children’s Service Board as a fund-raiser for Children’s Memorial Hospital.
“It’s exciting, stressful, exhilarating and demanding,” says Susan Glick, fashion director of the Chicago Apparel Center and producer of this and 100 other shows a year. “It’s exactly the same as theater. It involves juggling a lot of elements.
“The process (of organizing the show) goes on for an entire year. It involves getting a feel of who the new talent is in New York, then working with the Gold Coast community, getting retailers to participate.”
The planning pays off onstage with a seamless presentation. Backstage, it pays off too, despite one unforeseen detail–a male photographer in nearly all-female quarters. Before leaving for a final walk down the runway, one annoyed model asks what he is doing there.
Approaching the unforgiving lights of center stage, the acting begins again: The models’ faces of anticipation turn aloof or merry, leaving all hint of inner emotions and frenzied preparation backstage.
