Meet Studio Boum, the agency behind fashion’s most memorable runway shows

Studio Boum has spent the last decade creating some of fashion’s most memorable experiences – from gasp-inducing runway shows and euphoric parties to invitations so beautiful, you daren’t throw them away. If what Marcel Breuer said is true, that ‘the artist works with the highest level of feeling, the technician works with the highest level of logic,’ then Studio Boum is what happens when these two things collide, its approach combining the meticulous precision of architecture with a flare for magic.

The event design and production house’s HQ is spread across the second and third floors of a brutalist building in Fitzrovia, central London. The mania of Oxford Circus is quickly calmed upon entering the space, where white walls, gleaming steel and terracotta tiles create an architectural oasis. Sparse yet not without soul, it relays one of the studio’s core beliefs without having to say a word – that good design has the power to stop us in our tracks, to change how we feel.

Studio Boum on creating fashion’s most memorable backdrops

It’s four years since Studio Boum built this tranquil base, and ten since the studio was co-founded by Andy Moller, Mary-Jane Forster and Olivia Herrtage. Sydney native Moller says he originally trained as an architect but felt more excited by the pace of fashion. After relocating to the UK in 2012, he met event producers Forster and Herrtage while ‘running around London’ working on various shows together, and the three spotted a gap in the industry. ‘We wanted to have a creative output that was our own point of view; where we could work with people who shared the same tastes,’ says Moller. ‘Our studio brings the art of architectural design, creative thinking and full event production together under one roof.’

Now a 15-person operation, with 500 projects under its belt and a client list that includes Alaïa, Hermès, JW Anderson and Dunhill, Studio Boum has come a long way from its early intimate events. Timed exactly as the studio turns ten, the founders’ energy is now focused on a new outpost in Milan, a city with which the trio have developed a strong connection over the years. ‘Milan is another beacon, like London, that really values design,’ says Moller. ‘It’s the home of Salone [del Mobile], and there’s a community of people that appreciate the same things that we do. That’s how we like to work.’

Fleeting and adrenaline-charged, fashion shows have formed some of the studio’s most creative projects, allowing it to voyage into the mind of David Lynch for 16Arlington, spelling out phrases from the director’s surreal Lost Highway on snaking cubed seats; take over Europe’s oldest hospital, the 15th-century Corsie Sistine in Rome, for Cos; and set wild horses galloping through Paris for Stella McCartney. ‘That was a defining moment, Moller says of the emotional display at the Manège de l’École Militaire riding school last year. ‘Not just for us, but for the people that experienced the show. It still gives me goosebumps thinking about it.’

When it comes to shows, the studio is masterful in translating the ideas behind a collection into its own specific universe. ‘It always begins with the story,’ Moller says of the team’s detail-obsessed process. ‘We try to pursue the thread of the collection through all the other elements that surround it: location, set design, music, lighting, sometimes even scent.’ (For 16Arlington’s A/W 2023 show, upcycled coffee grounds were used to form an intensely aromatic runway, leaving imprints of models’ footprints as they walked.) ‘Fundamentally, magic is created when people feel that they’re part of something that’s authentic,’ Moller says. ‘That’s what resonates completely.’

Location scouting, the most sacred step in their process, has taken Studio Boum all around the world. Often working in historic buildings, the studio is clever about balancing new ideas with a respect for a place’s architectural significance. Take, for example, the Stella McCartney show at the Centre Pompidou in 2022, where a vast runway of primary colours mirrored the palette of Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano’s inside-out iconoclast in Paris’ 4th arrondissement. ‘Doing a show at the Pompidou is almost like going to church for us,’ says Moller. ‘You want to create something that is respectful and intelligent. When the inspiration is off, you can feel it. I think our role is finding that truthful narrative and bringing it to life.’

Whether transforming a hanger in Acton into an immersive silk scarf-inspired galaxy for Hermès or creating a peaceful pop-up library for Alaïa, Studio Boum’s main goal is to stir emotion and create lasting memories with its work. ‘We’re in an industry that’s all about human experiences,’ says Moller. ‘So you need to think about things at a human level. Especially as we’re working with people who might be the recipient of a million invitations or might have gone to numerous incredible events. It’s about how you challenge them. We’re always thinking about how that person is going to feel when they open a box or walk through a door.’

After working on hundreds of projects, the studio has developed a formula for this: leading with authentic storytelling shaped by their distinctive design codes, whilenever forgetting the importance of great hospitality. ‘Ultimately, you want people to enjoy themselves,’ says Moller. ‘You don’t want people queuing to get in or waiting for a drink, you want people on the dancefloor. I think hospitality is the lasting impression. People should come away saying, “I had a really great time and it felt effortless”.’

Beyond carving out a visual language that’s entirely their own, a trust in each other and the creatives in their orbit is what has fortified Studio Boum over the past decade. ‘Over a ten-year period, we’ve created a relationship where we can kind of finish each other’s sentences,’ Moller says of the shared energy between him, Forster and Herrtage. ‘Looking to the future, I think the Milan studio is an interesting new challenge. We just want to continue to work with people who share the same values and interests as us. That’s when the best work is created.’

This collaborative spirit – where ideas start around the table in the Fitzrovia office and are brought to life by makers and technicians – is the reason why Studio Boum doesn’t have a single name attached to it. Instead, the trio chose ‘boum’, another word for ‘party’ in French. ‘We wanted the studio to be bigger than just the three of us,’ Moller says. ‘It was a playful name when we started. I think that playfulness is definitely still present in what we do.’

This article appears in the September 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

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