Seeing music differently in The House that Rocks, 34 Montagu Square

A collaboration between woven textile artist Nadia-Anne Ricketts from BeatWoven, musician Beatie Wolfe and Saville Row tailor David Mason of Mr. Fish

It all began on the night of a book launch The Digital Handmade: Craftsmanship in the New Industrial Revolution, where both textile artist Nadia-Anne Ricketts and innovative musician Beatie Wolfe were introduced by the author Lucy Johnston with the words “You two MUST meet!”. It was the beginning of a magical collaboration where the five worlds of fashion, music, craft, history and technology would collide to show how music and craft can be worn and seen very differently in a compelling storytelling way.

Dubbed ‘The Secret Abbey Road’, 34 Montagu Square is the former home of Hendrix, McCartney, Lennon and Ono; and the very birthplace of a ‘Wind Cries Mary’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’. The basement flat now belongs to savile row tailor to the stars, David Mason, an already collaborative partner to Beatie Wolfe. Both were eager to launch David’s new acquisition; the re-launch of the flamboyant fashion label to the rock stars of the 60’s – Hendrix, Bowie and Jagger to name a few – Mr. Fish; with the release of Beatie’s new album consisted of music lyrics inspired by the very people that inhabited the space fifty years ago. However there was an element missing from their collaborative puzzle, and they weren’t sure what it was until Beatie met Nadia-Anne Ricketts, founder and visionary behind BeatWoven. It was the perfect collision of talents to create the first Mr. Fish garment, tailored from the fabric of BeatWoven, who’s woven patterns would be translated from Beatie’s produced song ‘Take Me Home’ performed and recorded live in the old home of these music legends, thus weaving not only the music but the literal atmosphere heritage of this space.

The live music, containing even the hand-claps of its audience, was translated by BeatWoven’s audio technology to reveal its unseen patterns, which fuse with digital weaving. Colours and yarns were chosen to fit its theme of a ‘Rock Star’ blazer, and the fabric was woven in one of the UK’s last remaining silk mills. A small addition to the story and a slight happy accident, were the latest NFC technology based business cards created by Beatie Wolfe in collaboration with Moo.com, called an ‘Audio Deck’, which, when scanned by an NFC phone would take its viewer to a web platform that plays the very song that was woven into the jacket. By placing one of these into the blazers pocket, the jacket is able to reveal a hidden clue of where the textile pattern comes from, thus revealing another level of identity and communication through fashion.

The jacket was launched at Digital-Life-Design in Munich, Germany and is currently on tour, globally, with Beatie performing ‘Take Me Home’ from her newly released album Montagu Square, whilst wearing the musical jacket. The jacket will be exhibited in London later in the year.

To find out more of this collaborative journey, please go to www.beatiewolfe.com/innovation and please follow @beatiewolfe and @BeatWoven on Twitter.

BeatWoven has been supported via the Creativeworks London Creative Voucher award and the follow on BOOST award.