Soft goods

Soft goods covers the fabric elements of a production: masking legs and borders, stage skirts, backdrops, cycloramas, scrims and the drape that divides a room. They are bought and tracked as a category because they share the same handling, the same storage problems and the same compliance requirement.

Materials differ in what they are for. Banjo is a medium-sheen polyester, light and inherently flame resistant, used wherever a large area has to be covered quickly. Velour is heavy, deep and matte, absorbs light and a useful amount of sound, and is what a stage is dressed with when it needs to look finished. Commando or duvetyne is dense and flat, used where light must not get through at all.

The handling problem is creases. Fabric folded in a hamper for a month arrives with hard lines in it that catch every bit of light on a stage, and the fix is time hanging rather than anything applied on the day. Goods that will be seen are hung early for that reason.

The compliance problem is flame resistance, and it is the one that stops a show. Inherently flame-resistant goods keep that property for life. Topically treated goods lose it with laundering and with time, which makes the laundering history of a drape a compliance record rather than housekeeping.

Corporate event production — owned inventory, our own crew, and a site survey before anything is specified.

• Flame resistance certificate The document a fire marshal asks for about the fabric in your room — a test method rather than a rating, and a piece of paper that has to name the actual material.
• Pipe and drape Weighted bases, uprights and crossbars carrying fabric panels — the fastest way to build a wall, and the thing most often ordered short.
• Masking The drape that defines what the audience cannot see — legs at the sides, a border across the top, and the difference between a finished stage and a visible crew.