'Bata-Ville is a hybrid of feature film and documentary, acting as both a travelogue and artwork' Heidi Reitmaier-Tate Britain
1. The Film / Bata-Ville is about a coach trip, which took former Bata employees from East Tilbury and Maryport in Cumbria to Ziln in Czechoslovakia, the home of Bata shoes and Thomas Bata. We designed the uniforms of the lead characters and directors, Nina Pope and Karen Guthrie.
Thomas Bata was an early converter to modernism, wanted to shoe the world and commissioned architecture to build a workers' utopia alongside the factories.
The film was officially nominated in the documentary section of the Edinburgh Film Festival, was shown at Tate Britain and recently as part of the London Architecture Biennale.
2. Uniform / The garments were designed with the Bata corporate colours in mind: pink, red and black. We took images of the utopian houses in Zlin and created large appliqué houses and shoes on the dresses.
The uniforms were designed to be a parody of the early airhostesses. The garments became an intrinsic part of the film and what was to become an emotional journey.
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