Kyiv-based seek.studio was responsible for the entire post-production cycle of ‘Nighthawk’ — a documentary about the creation of Maison Margiela Spring/Summer 2024 couture collection. It was shot by Ukrainian-born director Sasha Kasiuha
‘Nighthawk’, created by Sasha Kasiuha and former Maison Margiela creative director John Galliano, focuses on the process of creating items from the couture collection and the historical references that the designer used as a basis. The collection, like the January show at Paris Fashion Week, was dedicated to Paris at night and its atmosphere.
The seek.studio team worked with the director and John Galliano for three months. The team was responsible for the art direction of the film, its editing, graphic and motion design, color correction and partly for sound engineering.
The material for the film was shot not only by members of the director and camera team, but also by almost every member of the Maison Margiela team. Throughout the creation of the collection, the atelier’s employees wore GoPro cameras that recorded certain moments of the working process.
‘We had to look for visual solutions that would not only complement the story, but also show it in new ways, experimenting with editing, layering of images, and rhythm. It was a constant search for a balance between preserving the originality of the material and finding a visual language that resonates with the Maison Margiela aesthetic’, Katia Muzhychuk, the film’s chief editor, says.
Co-founder of seek.studio Kostia Sen says: despite the fact that the film is a documentary, he ‘did not manage to avoid artistic depth’. When the team members were editing the film, they used the multiple exposure technique — superimposing of two or more exposures to create a single image
The production team also adds that they used Runway, an AI-based program that generates video using text or images, ‘to animate some of the ‘Nighthawk’ footage’.
The Ukrainian duo Wavewalkrs, a collaborative project of Yurii Vodolazhskyi and Mykyta Reva, was responsible for the sound design and music in the film. The film was also complemented by the music of a string quartet — the January presentation of the collection was accompanied by a live performance of the musicians.
This is not the first collaboration between seek.studio and Sasha Kasiuha. In June 2024, they created video content for Madonna’s world tour.
About the Maison Margiela Artisanal show
John Galliano, creative director of Maison Margiela, presented the Spring/Summer 2024 couture collection during Paris Fashion Week in January. It was the brand’s first couture show in two years, and most viewers, both offline and online, called it one of the few ‘truly couture’ collections of that fashion week.
The Maison Margiela Artisanal show was held under the Pont Alexandre III bridge, referring to the first Martin Margiela shows held in abandoned premises. The location was decorated in the style of old Parisian bars, and the show was a ‘walk through the underbelly of Paris’.
The show was opened with a performance by French musician LUCKY LOVE, and closed by actress Gwendoline Christie (‘Wednesday’, ‘Game of Thrones’), who became one of the models of the show to Adele’s song ‘Hometown Glory’. Polish dancer Pat Boguslawski, who has worked on Maison Margiela shows not for the first time, was the movement director.
You can watch a full recording of the show on YouTube.
