Rehearsal in Progress A Film by René Scheibenbauer and Lydia Walker

Rehearsal in Progress, a film made by Scheibenbauer in collaboration with movement director and dance artist Lydia Walker, showcases the collection (in) Motion as well as embodying the essential vocabulary of the brand more broadly. Walker’s choreography introduces new inspirations, the work of Alexandra Bachzetsis and Vincent Dunoyer, whilst sharing in Scheibenbauer’s interest in pedestrian movement and the permeable boundaries between casual and structural, gentle and sharp, loose and precise.

The film could be at once the inspiration behind the collection, a presentation of the collection, or simply rehearsal footage where dancers have, quite spontaneously, walked in off the street wearing Scheibenbauer’s clothes – You would probably think it is the latter given the sensual lived-in thin jersey and softly sloped structure of the tailoring.

Capturing the dance rehearsal as a container to bring feelings into form, we move through moments of mundanity to curiosity, social play back to individual practice, spontaneity to synchronised performance and then rest. There is, in the rehearsal, something of the quality of a sky shifting over the course of a day – you can never quite believe it is the same sky, the same day, that once contained blue and now grey, turned pink then black. These ebbs and flows of energy and colour are sensitively distilled by Scheibenbauer and Walker into four chapters.

Rehearsal in Progress is a quiet ode to modern dressing set in motion.

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The collection

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Scheibenbauer is interested in how bodies feel, how they move, how they feel when they move in his clothes through the world. Perhaps then, before ‘movement’, ‘feeling’ is the centrifugal force that propels the brand forward, where complex pattern cutting choreographs meaningful interaction with/in the garment, culminating in an embodied experience that Scheibenbauer calls ‘Emotional Dressing’. 

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The collection Motion sought to return to this principal focus, drawing from intensive research with dancers, Scheibenbauer interrogated the relations between movement, identity, clothing and comfort – before we go further though we must first understand dance here as interchangeable with everyday movement, dance at its most elementary: a walk, a jump, a rotation. This research led Scheibenbauer to explore how tailoring could accommodate and create opportunities for such movement through the incorporation of Italian four way stretch wool, water repellent technical stretch cloth, Japanese cotton jersey, fine sheer Japanese jersey rib and stretch cotton shirting. Certain motifs from past seasons return too: looping ballet necklines, twisted waistbands, sloping pouches, pockets and hoods. With covert compartments and multiple-functions (a twisted waistband can be worn tight around the hip or hang loosely like a sling) these garments are utilitarian constructions designed to assist and ease dynamic city living. 

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Words by Isabelle Bucklow

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Concept  and creative direction: René Scheibenbauer and Lydia Walker

Film and photography: Max Glatzhofer

Movement direction: Lydia Walker

Performers: Lea Orož, Ronan Cardoza, Zakarius Harry

Hairstylist: Kachi Katsuya

Music and sound:  Andrew Zhou

Lighting assistant: Millie Noble

Shoes: About Arianne