Fashion Machine

Kids become fashion designers for the night. Five artists from textiles, theatre, and photography train a group of local kids to redesign audience members’ outfits live, in under an hour.

Brave volunteers wearing an “I’m In” sticker get pulled into the Fashion Machine, where the kids interview them before getting to work with sewing machines, scissors, buttons, ribbons and fabric. The audience watches the whole transformation unfold from the workshop floor, with a photographer capturing close-up shots of the young designers at work on a big screen. You’ll also meet the kids through videos filmed during their training sessions.

After 50 minutes, the newly remade outfits hit the runway in a fashion show hosted by the designers themselves.

This project was originally developed at Theatre SKAM and is presented by The Other Guise, a Vancouver Island company dedicated to developing new performance work and building connection through the arts.

Note: if you’re selected as a model, your full outfit (top and bottom) will be cut up and remade.