Development
Costume designer Arianne Phillips designed the main costumes for the tour. According to her, Givenchy designer Riccardo Tisci contributed two outfits, Tom Ford made bespoke suit for the band, Miu Miu created the shoes, Stella McCartney provided the thigh-high boots and Moschino made the sunglasses. Other designers involved in creating the clothes included Yves Saint Laurent, Roberto Cavalli, and Jeremy Scott. Givenchy's creations were selected for the first and third acts of the tour, while Scott's designs were selected for the second act. Philips commented on the different sections, saying,
" It’s a theme that runs throughout her career. She’s not afraid of being hard. He and Madonna were friends. If he were alive, it would be his 50th birthday as well. So I thought, 'What if we revisited that?' Riccardo’s a new young talent. If you look at Madonna’s history with fashion, that makes him an obvious choice. always wants to push the envelope. There are no vanity considerations based on her age."
NME reported that the tour would comprise 250 travelling workers, 69 guitars, 12 trampolines and 100 pairs of kneepads. The stage's layout was similar to the Confessions Tour stage. It had two giant textile panels that defined the proscenium arch, supporting two giant M-shaped structures, lit from within. The lighting beams and structures were rigged from the ceiling. There were four different clusters of loudspeakers in the back of the stage, providing sound to the rear tiers. The main stage was accompanied by a catwalk which was shorter than the Confessions Tour one, and a satellite stage at the end of the runway. There was a set of screens on the main stage – which moved and changed shape and layout, from the shape of a cube at the beginning of the show. Also present were two semi-transparent, cylinder-shaped screens, above the satellite stage. Other structures included a number of smaller platforms, ramps, and conveyor belts, which usually were kept beneath the main stage, but were brought out during some of the performances. The catwalks were shaped as a ramp at the very beginning but was transformed into a flat runway eventually. The tour was the first to use a pair of DiGiCo SD7 digital mixing consoles at the sound production's core audio. Tim Colvard, who previously presided as the sound consultant of the 2006 Confessions Tour, decided to use the SD7 technology after researching it. Madonna and her background vocalists used Sennheiser SKM 5200 wireless microphones with the highly directional ME 5005 super-cardioid heads, and Sennheiser in-ear monitors. Monitor engineer Matt Napier commented that he chose "the Evolution systems for backline, as their RF is rock-solid, the transmitter units are small and reliable and they are very competitively priced. And I couldn't imagine giving Madonna another monitor system, she has become so accustomed and comfortable with the IEM G2."
Read more about this topic: Sticky & Sweet Tour
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