AY-PE, an AV, digital software and multimedia design studio for museums, heritage sites and attractions, is celebrating the opening of Crown to Couture, Kensington Palace’s biggest and most ambitious exhibition yet.
Since opening on 5 April, this new exhibition from Royal Historic Palaces has been featured in global publications, including the New York Times, Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, as well as all UK national press. It brings to life a Gerogian-era party across the State Apartments of the Palace, featuring more than 200 iconic outfits and objects from world-famous celebrities, designers and historic collections.
AY-PE was commissioned to design two animated, projected films, edit three celebrity, fashion designer and stylist films, create a touchscreen interactive to engage visitors in their own opinion of celebrity, and research, script and deliver two historical-contemporary voiceover exhibits.
The firm was also asked to guide the creative integration of an independent cinematographer’s film into the exhibition and to compose the soundtracks and soundscapes to nine unique rooms and messages, whilst retaining an exhibition audio flow and brand.
18th-century fashion meets the red carpet
Crown to Couture at London’s Kensington Palace draws interesting parallels between the world of the red carpet and the 18th-century Royal Court, displaying period fashion alongside contemporary radical couture outfits, as worn to events like the Met Ball and the Oscars.
AY-PE’s digital media supports the narrative thread: examining the 18th-century court through the lens of contemporary fashion, building on the concept that both in the 18th century or when talking about modern-day celebrities “a great red carpet moment can make or break your career”, as curator Polly Putnam said in an interview with The Guardian.
The firm designed the AV to support and at key moments enhance the continuation through time of the use of dress for spectacle, social comment and political statement.
A spectacular arrival
The exhibition design, created by Land Design Studio, communicates the grandeur of a Court ball throughout the State Apartments. AY-PE’s task was to bring in a projection mapping element to Land’s set work, communicating a spectacular red carpet-style arrival.
Against the backdrop of an illustrated, theatre proscenium stage, a Billy Porter mannequin, wearing the Sun God dress by The Blonds which Porter wore to the 2019 Met Gala, is perched atop an Egyptian-style litter-bed, held aloft by mannequins. The theatrical backdrop to this ‘arrival set’ was designed to evoke drama, awe, humour and excitement.
In close collaboration with the Crown to Couture team, AY-PE developed a Georgian street setting and characters that were reminiscent of Rudolph Ackermann‘s artwork from the 18th century.
The AY-PE team added depth to the show and enabled an exciting arrival scene to be at the forefront of the filmic projection by including a card theatre-style 3D set into their software design. Projected floor-to-ceiling 5 x 3 metres behind the Billy sun god and litter, the foreground of AY-PE’s design features the creations of celebrated fashion illustrator Gladys Perint Palmer, who created bespoke figures across the Crown to Couture exhibition, with unique characters designed for the Stone Hall arrival scene.
AY-PE respectfully and delicately animated these characters as they appear to arrive at the Stone Hall red carpet, arriving out of both contemporary vehicles and Georgian sedans. The firm designed a gentle, constant motion to the scrolling scene, with intermittent paparazzi camera bulb FX flashing at the figures passing by, creating an atmosphere of excitement and movement.
Sound design for a party in the palace
Additionally, AY-PE was asked to design and deliver the distinctive sound installations and designs that bring the exhibition to life, ranging from fanfares and orchestral string arrangements to dance beats and garage.
Compositions and soundscapes span the State Apartments. In order to elevate the musical score, AY-PE worked with bespoke music composer WMP Studio to create nine audio elements, each with a purpose that is specific to its location but also designed to carry cohesion and an exhibition brand feel throughout the galleries.
Together with the Crown to Couture team, AY-PE x WMP revised the sound design through a number of review stages to create an exhibition style that combines 18th-century composition with modern musical beats and flourishes, which ebbs and flows throughout the exhibition.
An exhibition signature trill of music by Ignatius Sancho, one of the first published black British composers whose music was probably played at the Georgian Kensington Court, was woven into the soundscapes and compositions by AY-PE and WMP, at the suggestion of the curatorial team. This adds a subtle interpretive layer of the society surrounding fashion events throughout history.
The musical design provided a unique opportunity for AY-PE, with sound pieces intended to evoke the splendour of the court, the excitement of the red carpet, the power of being in the presence of royalty and celebrities, and the strength of political and cultural criticism that fashion can represent.
“This project was one of a kind and we were so grateful to be a part of it,” says Simon Ackerley MD of AY-PE. “It’s not every day that in one gallery, you get to design an anthemic musical piece to support an iconic Beyonce gown purposely and powerfully stood in front of a throne, then on the same project, compose a historical-contemporary piece to support a projection of a Principal Dancer with the Royal Ballet, gracefully dancing through a Palace room.”
Fashion meets politics and provokes thought
In addition, AY-PE and WMP created an urban street-style piece of music to go with Sophia Blackwell‘s spoken word pieces, which were specially commissioned for Crown to Couture.
A room of political fashion is supported by the sound and AY-PE’s bold visual projection that contrasts Georgian smoke graffiti with contemporary social media protesting. This Council Chamber features, among other things, Lizzo‘s “VOTE” outfit by Christian Siriano and Lena Waithe‘s rainbow cape by Carolina Herrera, which was inspired by the LGBTQ+ flag.
In collaboration with curators Polly Putnam and Claudia Acott-Williams, AY-PE wrote scripts that referenced Georgian court gossip, 18th-century royal court reports on fashion, and contemporary red carpet commentary. In one script, 18th-century-styled mannequins gossip about the court, Katy Perry’s iconic Moschino chandelier dress and other fashion spectacles.
Other voiceovers add to the moment a visitor climbs the King’s Staircase, as the sound of dance beats, spectator calls and fashion commentary immerses them in their own arrival.
AY-PE created a custom edit of forward-thinking fashion experts discussing the future of the red carpet and the impact of expanding digital technology and globalisation, using exclusive fresh footage of some of the most well-known designers and stylists. Additionally, AY-PE was given the opportunity to design edits using prestigious Vogue films of Billy Porter and Kendall Jenner, capturing the intensity and excitement of the Met Gala preparations.
One of the goals of the exhibition is to inspire guests to find connections between the style and activities of the 18th-century Court and the concept of modern-day red-carpet fashion and celebrities.
To help them ponder the question of what celebrity means to them, AY-PE created a touchscreen interactive, working from a visual concept of sleek fashion publications. The team ensured that the UI and UX for this interactive are easy to operate, and stylistically fitting for the exhibition. Visitors browse a rotating carousel gallery of celebrity images and choose the red carpet person who most speaks to them in terms of embodying celebrity.
The motion typography, 3D layering and sophisticated dynamic rotation of the images create depth and glamour, in keeping with both the feel of red carpet editorials and the grandeur of the Queen Caroline’s Closet gallery.
Taking visitors on a journey
Carol Swords, creative programming and interpretation manager at Historic Royal Palaces says: “Crown to Couture is the biggest exhibition Historic Royal Palaces has ever staged at Kensington Palace, taking place across both the temporary exhibition spaces and the state apartments.
“We wanted to draw fascinating parallels between the world of the Georgian court and the modern-day red carpet and to take visitors on a journey through the exhibition. AY-PE helped to bring these parallels to life, through fantastic AV that saw visitors transported to moments in time, including an arrival at court, as well as listening to gossiping courtiers, which truly bring the spaces to life.”
For AY-PE, this project has added to the design studio’s reputation as the go-to creative, collaborative and experienced audio-visual designers for attractions and brands with globally significant stories to tell. It also fits with the firm’s love of telling diverse stories through AV. AY-PE has since been appointed to another London fashion project and believes there is an even closer synergy between AV, fashion and brand stories to be explored across the creative industries.
Storytelling and fashion “sit hand in hand”
Ackerley, who also acted as AV Project Director on Crown to Couture, says: “It was a pleasure to work with Historic Royal Palaces again, following our work bringing Hampton Court Palace’s Chocolate Kitchens to life with them. HRP have a fantastic, open mindset to creativity which really helped us to develop the right visual designs and sound compositions for a fashion heritage exhibition of this high calibre and global significance.
“As designers, we were enthralled to work on an exhibition which features some of the greatest fashion creations and designers – historical and contemporary. This experience was then elevated by working alongside Joseph Bennett, consultant creative director to the exhibition, who himself has produced exceptional fashion moments, including being a production designer for Alexander McQueen.
“We believe that storytelling, exquisite audio-visual design and fashion sit hand in hand and we are looking into ways to take this messaging future forwards within that design community, whether overtly experiential or deeper into the metaverse. This supports the messaging we saw from a variety of designers and stylists including Giles Deacon, Ozwald Boateng and Rose Forde in our Future of the Red Carpet film edit, created to end the exhibition. We’re excited about where else we can take these two creative industries.”
Setworks worked on the fit-out for Crown to Couture and Blue Elephant provided the AV hardware.
Historic Royal Palaces, a charity that cares for six Royal palaces including Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London, is on a mission to create space for spirits to stir and be stirred. The organisation aims to create spaces where everyone feels welcome and accepted, as they learn stories about the monarchs they know and the lives they don’t. The Crown to Couture exhibition is supported by Garrard, the Blavatnik Family Foundation and Cunard.
Last year, AY-PE announced that it had been chosen by Rangers F.C. in Glasgow, Scotland, to work on the Rangers Football Club Museum.
All images courtesy of Historic Royal Palaces, unless otherwise stated
