music

Hawthorne & Heaney for FKA Twigs

July 31, 2019 by Natasha Searls-Punter

It has been three years since FKA Twigs has given a live performance so when she announced her return to music with new songs and the ‘Magdalene’ tour, it was a safe bet that it was going to be epic. From all accounts, she has not disappoint as many people have been describing as ‘a masterpiece’ (anothermag.com) ‘feels at times more like an avant-garde dance piece than a pop show’ (NME).

Unsurprisingly, when superstar stylists Ed Kay and Matthew Josephs contatcted us, we jumped at the chance to work on the embroidery for the tour costumes. We produced a series of 5 pieces which formed a part of this visual treat and are delighted with how they turned out!Bandana and head scarf with leopard print sleeved corset

Leopard print sleeved corset

Monogram silver corset

Hawthorne & Heaney for Hasan Hejazi

January 11, 2019 by Natasha Searls-Punter

We are delving back into the archives to revisit this really fun project we worked on for designer Hasan Hejazi in 2012. We were asked to create baroque inspired tonal cut work for three bespoke luxury evening dresses for pop goddess Marina from Marina and the diamonds. The project included some exciting names including Tim Bret Day (Photography), Thomas Knights (Film) and a suit for the designer by London tailor Gresham Blake.

Our designs and drawings were based on victorian florid ornament something that is very good to translate to cut work. The initial designs and refining took a long time and the annotations and notes for the embroiderers even longer as there was so much detail involved.

The embroideries were executed in cutwork in colours to match the dresses with a fade to either lighter or darker. There were also a few crystals scattered about to add a bit of light.

The dresses were then put together over four days ready for the photo shoot.

Before the event we hadn’t seen any of the dresses, so we were very excited for the launch. The first we saw was the full length red piece which marina wore for her performance at the beginning of the night.

She then changed into the blue knee length dress which is our personal favourite !

The final pink dress was saved solely for the photo shoot, which you can see in the photos below. It was lovely to get a chance to flex our cutwork drafting muscles this thoroughly, so we are very grateful to Hasan for getting us involved ! A wonderful project all round.

Hawthorne & Heaney Does Dressage Costumes

February 4, 2016 by Natasha Searls-Punter

Once in a while, we get asked to produce something a bit out of the ordinary and this is one such project that ticks all the boxes for us; embroidery, heraldry, animals. We have been working on a piece for a dressage costume for a ‘Nutcracker’ themed performance for which we produced a scarlet red saddle cloth to finish off the outfit.

We started by taking some measurements and fitting the model for her piece, she was somewhat confused by the process…

The draft was then refashioned in the right fabrics, a mixture of heavy calico and melton military cloth with a gold lace trim.

We also machine embroidered this HH monogram in raised gold thread which was then applied.

And a few action shots of the big performance

Hawthorne & Heaney for ‘High Speed Dirt’

December 11, 2015 by Natasha Searls-Punter

A short while ago we worked on a small prioject for the Dutch Metal band called ‘High Speed Dirt’ who were having their reunion so we produced a set of trucker caps for them as a small memento of the occasion.

The project was a bit of an unusual one for us as we don’t often work on items like this but we embroidered them with the bands logo across the front.

If you don’t know about them, here is a little about the band: ‘High Speed Dirt’ stands for hard rock, where the old rock ‘n roll traditions meet modern day’s musical influences. Hardrock, heavy metal and pure rock ‘n roll are the key influences (think old Vengeance, Black Label Society, Ugly Kid Joe, Motley Crue).They were founded in 2004 and toured the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany until 2012 where they supported Supported legendary Dutch rock band Peter Pan Speedrock – furthermore played with US bands Kleveland and Beatallica, New Zealand’s Grande Cobra and Belgium rockers El Guapo Stuntteam. In this time they launched three EPs

o Carnival of Animals (2004)

o King Diesel (2007)

o Tomorrow (2009)

Furthermore, featured on multiple collective records and are just starting to explore the modelling profession…;)

This one might take a bit of growing into.