Project: Black Violin Tour
Fabric: IFR Poly Muslin with Camo Netting, IFR Burgundy Supervel

We are in love with this spectacular tour design for Black Violin, using drapery from both our Timeless and Traditional Collection and our Industrial Textures Collection. Led by Eric Cathcart and the innovative team at Bigtime Lighting Design, this tour’s staging and lighting design elements utterly blew us away! Using our 23’h x 40’w Black Camo Chaos Backdrop as their main stage drape, they were already starting with an extraordinary background for the talented artists performing in front. Adding in some velvety 23’h x 10’w Burgundy Supervel (pre-pleated) Legs and a gorgeous 60’w adjustable Burgundy Supervel Swagged Border helped them frame their unique stage design flawlessly.

Project: Shovels and Rope Tour
Fabric: IFR Voile, White, with static LED light strands

The tour designers for the incredible musical duo Shovels and Rope were able to create these spectacular and magical stage looks using our rental White Voile LED drape legs from our Delightably White Drapery Collection. These dazzling 12’h x 10’w panels are incredibly versatile, and look absolutely exquisite in natural lighting, with colorful theatrical lighting, or even with just using the drapery’s own “static warm LED lighting”. This fabric works remarkably well as a projection surface, allowing for gobo designs to reflect wonderfully throughout the show. And by simply splashing on some dramatic and scintillating colorful lighting effects throughout their shows, their tour designers were able to give their audiences fresh, new looks all concert long. Just stunning!

Project: Tanner Laughlin, Home For The Holidays Concert
Fabric: IFR Crystal, Copper

Excited to work with Event Designer Tanner Laughlin, who produces this annual holiday show that his community looks forward to every year. This particular stage design already contained some red velvety drapes and holiday-themed decorations, but he wanted to add a dramatic piece to really tie the whole thing together. He decided to use our striking 60’w Copper Sheer Swags from our eclectic Oh’ So Swanky Drapery Collection. Attached together along a simple tie-on header, these asymmetrical sheer swags are very easy to install, take on whatever colorful lighting you may want to use for your show, and add tons of excitement to all types of stage designs.

Project: Old Dominion, “Nashville Night in Buchanan Benefit Concert”
Fabric: IFR Pewter Textura and IFR Smokey Pearl Satin

Incredibly honored to get to work with renowned Production Manager Matt Anderson with this fabulous charity event design. Spearheaded by Matthew Ramsey from the fabulous American country music band Old Dominion, this band puts on a wonderful yearly benefit concert for the folks in his community called “Nashville Night in Buchanan”. Using our gorgeous rental 23’h x 10’w (pre-pleated) Pewter Textura Legs (from our Timeless and Traditional Collection) and topped with our Smoky Pearl Swagged Border (from our Silver Satin Drapery Collection), they completely dazzled their audiences with this easy-to-create, yet ultra-dramatic, motif. The Textura substrate has a beautiful, crushed nap that will give your designers tons of dramatic looks by having them simply splashing various colorful theatrical lighting onto them, and the swagged border helps tie the whole design together. These drapes are also wildly popular for tours especially because they are all IFR (inherently flame retardant), and extremely travel-friendly.

Project: Jonathan Antoine
Fabric: Pewter Textura

For Jonathan Antoine’s first solo performance in the United States, his team was looking for stage curtains that would be easy to work with, light up beautifully, and give the stage a timeless look. Antoine’s team decided to use a variety of our Pewter Textura rental drapes from our Timeless and Traditional Rental Drapery Collection. The stage was set using a mixture of pre-pleated legs and swagettes in various sizes. These rental drapes, along with a creative lighting design, resulted in a stunning stage design that gave the show a modern, yet timeless look.

Project: Barbershop Harmony Society International
Fabric: Metal Mesh

For this project, we suggested drapes from our Industrial Textures Collection for the yearly Barbershop Harmony Society International Competition. The main backdrop behind the singers and the rest of the stage was a wide row of Metal Mesh curtains. These drapes come out of the hamper ready to hang, making them perfect for travelling. Grey Encore Velour panels hung behind the Metal Mesh drapes added more dimension and uniformity to the layout. The LED panels and theatrical lighting lit up the center of the stage, giving the backdrop a different mood for each performer.

Project: The Greatest Wedding Ever Donated (G.W.E.D.)
Fabric: White Voile

We were honored to be a part of this wedding to support The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Global Genes. Décor for The Greatest Wedding Ever Donated (G.W.E.D.) included white voile drapes from our Delightably White Rental Collection. We started with a single white voile pleated drapery leg in center stage, then added our 11’h x 16’w and 9’h x 11’w white voile swags. They were able to bring the entire design together by splashing some colorful lighting onto this backdrop to create a completely new feel for each part of the event.

Project: Deer Tick
Fabric: Silver Textura

For Deer Tick’s US Tour, we recommended our 12’h x 10’4”w Silver Textura Austrian Zip-Walls from our Silver Satin Rental Drapery Collection. These drapes give a large-scale feel using a smaller size of specialty curtains. These Austrian Zip-Walls have hidden ties on the top, making them very easy to install, and zipping several together created an entire wall length at a much lower height. The reduced size of these drapes, both in height and width, enable them to work in smaller venues beautifully. Our Austrian Zip-Walls can either zip together to create a stunning seamless backdrop or be used as independent legs to add texture and depth to existing staging.

Project: The Avett Brothers
Fabric: White Voile and White Poly Silk

White Voile Specialty Rental Drapes were used in a very notable and effective way by indie folk-pop group The Avett Brothers. Using White Voile Legs and Swags to help create a truly rockin’ look from our Delightably White rental drape collection, these drapes were layered and lit up to be as ultra-cool as the band playing in front of them. The News Observer showcased the band beautifully, and ultimately showcased our specialty rental drapes too. Using these white voile drapes along with a dramatic Kabuki Solenoid Drape reveal for their New Year’s Eve show, The Avett Brothers were able to create the extraordinary look they were going for.

Photographs By:
Scott Sharpe, News Observer
Leon Goodwin
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Project: Revolution Dance Company at the El Portal Theatre
Fabric: Silver Satin Drapery Collection

Noted choreographer Kristen McQuaid chose a variety of pieces from our Silver Satin Drapery Collection as the backdrop for a performance by the Revolution Dance Company.  The design started by using several of our 28’h x 14’w Silver Satin pleated drapes as the main backdrop, and then was enhanced with swag drapes, including a large 22’h x 40’w Silver Satin Swag and a 16’h x 30’w Silver Satin Swag.

Layering these drapes and swags created an incredible and luxurious look for the show, and changing the lighting scheme between each performance with sensational colors patterns and intensities produced an exceptionable look that was one-of-a-kind.

Photo By: Kristen McQuaid, Choreographer

Project: New Orleans Bingo! Show at The Kennedy Center
Fabric: Burgundy Supervel; Timeless and Traditional Drapery Collection

This project included an assortment of our Burgundy Supervel fabric for the legs and borders (both swagged and pleated), and a Venetian Drape from our Timeless and Traditional Drapery Collection with sizes ranging from 23’-28’h and 10’w to 40’w.  Our challenge was to provide theatrical rental drapes that would be versatile, elegant, rich in color and texture, and yet lightweight and easy enough to install in this venue.

The venetian drape is 24’h x 40’w, and has 7 lift lines which can be lifted by hand or mechanically.  It is a fully functioning drape that hangs floor to ceiling, and can be used either as a fully pleated backdrop, as a frame for the stage, or both. It is cut from flame retardant polyester velour fabric fashioned into a classic theatre curtain design.

Project: Nelly Furtado American Tour
Fabric: Silver Satin Collection; Timeless & Traditional Collection

This project started with rich, velvety Black Encore Velour masking drapes to help create negative space on and off stage. Next came three Sew What? custom-built 8’h x 16’w swags to frame the top of the stage, made from a luxurious aqua-gold shimmery organza to reflect various lighting schemes. Lastly, several pre-pleated Pewter Textura drapes from our Industrial Textures Collection were hung in various sizes to help transform the stage into a radiant sight.

Project: Marilyn Manson Tour
Fabric: White Voile with Low-Tech LED Lights – Starlight LED

These lighted voile drapes were an unexpected but inspired choice for the tour of heavy metal artist Marilyn Manson. Under sophisticated stage lighting, the voile fabric disappears and the LED lights glow like fireworks. Change the lighting, and suddenly the lights look like stars behind the artist. The contrast of the edginess of the artist and the softness of the LED lights was a brilliant way to emphasize the hard core metal music.

Project: Pinnacle Awards – FORTE DESIGN
Fabric: Supervel – Rockin’ Red

This project combined a variety of pieces from the Rockin’ Red collection. In the foreground as the header you see one of our pre-swagged headers. These are adjustable in width – and hang to look great every time. Combined with standard legs and border the completed stage scene was glamorous – and worthy of an award.

Photo Permission: Michael Roccaforte – FORTÉ

Project: David Archuleta
Fabric: Supervel / Gold – Timeless and Traditional
Series Voile / White – Delightably White Series
Low-Tech LED drape – Starlight LED Series

This is a wonderful combination showcasing three of our Rent What? Drapery Series – showing just how easy it is to mix and match for the perfect look. Classic gold swags and legs from our Timeless and Traditional Series were used to set the scene. White voiles from our Delightably White Series hung upstage on a bi-parting traveler and revealed when illuminated were the beautiful Low-Tech LED drapes from our Starlight LED Series. Wrap it all up with some of our seasonal rental decorations and there you have a very, merry Christmas.

Project: So You Think You Can Dance
Materials: 15oz Encore / Starlight LED backdrop

Dynamic dancing and a Starlight LED stardrop. Let’s face it – they go hand in hand. This very popular show hit the stage with our Starlight LED stardrop upstage and center. The DMX addressable controllers can be run from Front Of House or via the provided drape-side control box. Choose from Chameleon (color changing) or Blue/White (realistic) – add some stars to your stage without even holding auditions.

Project: Chris Cornell at the Wiltern (Los Angeles)
Fabric: Crushed Screen Mesh / Aluminum

For Chris Cornell’s concert at the Los Angeles Wiltern Theatre, the band’s management turned to Rent What? Inc. to provide a one of a kind rock-drop. This spectacular crushed mesh drape from the “Industrial Textures Rental Series” gave the lighting designer a textured palette which resulted in some amazing looks.

Rent What? Inc. is proud to feature quality stage curtains and backdrops made by Sew What? Inc.

Project: Jennifer Hudson
Fabric: 15oz Encore Velour / Black; Satin / Silver; 8oz Supervel / Grey

This tour drew entirely on pieces from Rent What? Inc’s “Silver Satin Series” rental inventory. The specialty stage scene for Jennifer Hudson was sophisticated and affordable for a new artist on her first tour. Of the many pieces available in the Silver Satin Series, an Austrian backdrop, giant contemporary swags and velour legs offered full upstage coverage. Downstage was a bi-parting traveler track and main stage drapes, also rental pieces from Rent What?.

Project: Metal Mesh Drape and Muslin Cyc for the Decemberists Tour
Fabric: Metal Mesh / Natural Seamless Muslin

Lighting designer Anne Militello had a very clear vision for this mixed media piece for The Decemberists. It needed to look like an oil painting when lit, with dimension. Not chunky or rough, rather delicate and textural. Combining designed layers of varying widths and heights, the metal mesh was set to the downstage cord of the truss, while a dirtied up natural muslin backdrop acted as the canvas to the scene. Anne put her talents to work – and roll over Rembrandt! In a recent article in Lighting and Sound America Magazine Anne accredited the success of the design to Sew What? Inc’s ability to listen and interpret her needs into a reality.

Like this look? The layered drapery seen here is similar to pieces represented by Rent What? Inc. in their Industrial Textures Rental Drapery Series.

Project: John Mayer at the Nokia Theatre
Fabric: Silver Poly Satin

Both the producer and designer knew “what” they wanted for the live DVD recording of John Mayer at the Nokia Theatre. Only problem was – they could not “find” it as a rental. Their decision to custom make a drape to suit their needs was made only 3 days before the show was to be filmed. Needless to say they were thrilled to learn that Sew What? could not only make the 30’ x 60’ Austrian Drape in time, but could do it at an affordable price.
PS: So catch this news: the Nokia Theatre loved the drape so much they actually purchased it from the John Mayer Production and it is now a resident drape at the Los Angeles Nokia Theatre!

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