15 Years of Tatty Devine

I’m huffing and puffing my way through NYFW but I have a birthday wish to send out today that is more London-centric.  There seem to be a lot of 10-15 year anniversaries coming up that have taken me surprise.  I’ll be like “Wait, ten years?  Really?  But I remember when it all began… and I’m not that old…. OH.”  Being thirty means I have at least 15 years of memories where cool stuff happened and I was old enough to experience said cool stuff.

I may not have first hand touched Tatty Devine‘s initial attempts at leather cuff jewelery made out of scraps, gestated after Harriet Vine and Rosie Wolfenden had met at Chelsea art college before the turn of the millennium, but their jewellery and their shops have been prominent in my I Heart London’s Fashion Underground journey that I took as soon as I could afford to do so.  Their fifteen year rise from DIY accessories mavericks to MBEs with two shops in London, over 300 stockists and a worldwide fan base is also a cause to celebrate in the context of London designers where so many have burned brightly with hype and died when the business crashes.  Before I flew off to Tokyo/New York, I caught up with Harriet (Rosie has just given birth!) to talk through those heady fifteen years through Lomo shots, Kodak moments and of course their jewellery.

One look at Tatty Devine‘s website and their stores today in prime locations like Brick Lane and Covent Garden (I miss their old store in Soho…) you would think that it’s all a professional slick operation.  It is today but once upon a time Harriet and Rosie couldn’t figure out Photoshop or Illustrator to draw out their jewellery and thought the internet was scary (“I thought if I typed Hello Kitty into that computer, some obscene porn was going to pop up!”).  This was a sign of their times but also of their “Fuck it, let’s just make stuff!” attitude borne out of their fresh enthusiasm after graduating art school.  Harriet recalls going to Denmark Street to go check out cute band boys and found plectrums, which they strung up into necklaces and later became a Tatty Devine classic.  Leather face brooches had lips drawn on with biros.  They exhibited at London Fashion Week with laminated photocopies.  It’s the kind of unprofessional and haphazard bolshiness that wouldn’t cut the mustard today because we know too much and expect a lot but at the time, that’s what charmed and endeared both customers and the press to Tatty Devine.

 

 

 

I love these lomo shots of Rosie and Harriet DIY-ing their own look books, learning everything as they went along and having buckets of fun along the way.

In the beginning found objects like the plectrums or cake decorations were a huge part of Tatty Devine’s lexicon.  Their art school training had taught them about appropriating objects from one context to place in another.   They soon found limitations in terms of selling to stores and fulfilling quantities and quickly had to find another way of making their jewellery.

They discovered laser cutting through odd shapes at a place called Canal Plastics in New York and then found a laser cutter back in the UK to help make their perspex dreams come true.  Rosie and Harriet never thought about actually buying a machine of their own but as Tatty Devine had begun to scale up after a few years, they took the plunge with a bank loan so that they could really start to get laser cutting happy.  Where today, opening your own store takes a huge toll on finances, Tatty Devine managed to take on their own Brick Lane store slash studio very early on when rents were still reasonable.  “We didn’t think of it as a shop,” said Harriet.  “We just wanted a studio where we could also sell stuff too.  It was quite normal to see artists taking over shops in London.”

Brick Lane store – love the Post-It wall

Their store became places to throw last minute parties and impromtu exhibitions such as a book launch for the girl band Chicks on Speed, who were huge fans of Tatty Devine.

Launch of Chicks on Speed book at Tatty Devine Brick Lane store

They described the years from 2003 onwards as their ‘Berlin’ years when they had the freedom to really experiment and go for it in a way that would seem a bit bonkers today in lieu of business plans and “brand” strategies.  I never knew for instance they did a show with Brick Lane neighbours Bernstock Speirs, who back in 2002 were still doing clothing.  Better yet, they held the show in a Stockpot restaurant (a cheap and cheerful eating institution in London) and had waitresses made up in Tatty Devine outfits, accessorised with the jewellery.

Bernstock Speirs and Tatty Devine joint show at Stockpot restaurant in 2002

As we looked at fifteen iconic Tatty Devine pieces, one selected for every year of their existence and other bits of odd paraphernalia (Tatty Devine store card…?), it bore remembering the sort of innovations that Rosie and Harriet have really spearheaded.  Laser cutting, perspex jewellery and using kitsch and pop cultural motifs seem commonplace today but those who know what’s the real shebang, will always go to Tatty Devine.  It’s why they have a vehemently loyal fan base.  For a new generation of customers that are inundated with options, choices and sadly copies, thankfully the real shebang is still very much accessible both price wise and in terms of the brand’s online and physical presence.  Here’s to another fifteen – albeit more stable and less ramshackle – years for the duo.

 

 

 

Tatty Devine’s 15th Birthday Shop open until 30th September at Royal Festival Hall Southbank Centre Shop