Britain & Ireland's Next Top Model

The brief was to provide a ground-breaking catwalk fashion show production, the most unique and awe-inspiring element of which would be an underwater, mirrored catwalk.

“Our aim was to give the impression the models were walking on water,” explained Johnny. “By installing a waterproof membrane we effectively made a giant pond. With mirrors forming the flooring base to this, the effect was stunning and truly unique. I have never seen anything like it before. This could be the most innovative catwalk ever built!”



The Director was keen to get some remarkable shots; in order to achieve this SXS installed a transparent staging deck in the middle of the structure. This allowed shots through the water from underneath which looked incredible on-screen.

Johnny specifies LiteDeck for most of his shows, hailing it “a solid, simple and reliable product.” He adds: “LiteDeck’s weight load capabilities are ideal for most shows and give me enough load capacity for unusual imposed loads – in the case of this project it was over 2000 litres of water. The versatility and cross-compatibility of the system make it ideal for integrating with bespoke elements. For this show our special effects department fabricated aluminium water troughs to collect the water flow from the rain curtain before it was to be fed back up to the top again. These were integrated into the overall stage structure and worked seamlessly as a structural extension to the main stage deck.”



“One of the most interesting parts of the stage build is the see-through stage deck. For this we used a LiteDeck frame and attached 20mm polycarbonate instead of the usual 18mm ply. The lightweight design of the system is very popular with the crew too!”

SXS, known for cutting edge and high-profile projects, has been a loyal LiteDeck user since its launch and has built a strong reputation for being able to deliver on challenging and time-critical staging projects.