Behind the scenes with Mrs Jones
We've teamed up with one of the most glamorous females in London fashion, Mrs Jones, on a collection inspired by Inca, Aztec and Navaho textiles. These are some of the biggest and most colourful pieces we've ever made!
The collection features showpieces typical of Mrs Jones' style, but with a Tatty Devine twist, and bridges the gap between clothes and jewellery. There are lustrous feathers, tropical birds, streamers, and abstract Aztec shapes mixed with mirrored rainbow brights. Four special pieces from the collection are available to buy, and the extended collection of stunning one-off statement pieces are showcased at Mrs Jones, available by appointment.
Fee Doran, the lady behind the Mrs Jones label, is a notorious fashion designer and stylist. She's worked with Madonna, Scissor Sisters, Florence and the Machine and Paloma Faith, and is famous for flamboyant pop star creations like Goldfrapp's Pony outfits and Kylie's Can't Get You Out Of My Head white hooded catsuit:
Like Tatty Devine, Fee first started out at Portobello market! She's since become legendary in the fashion and music worlds for her unconventional approach to design. Her EC1 studio has just been transformed into a new show space catering to stylists, artists and performers. It's a creative mecca, with unique Mrs Jones pieces and one-off products from her favourite designers.
Here we are at the grand opening of the show space a few weeks ago!
And here we are with Mrs Jones, hard at work in the Tatty Devine studio creating the collection!
The Mrs Jones looks is hedonistic, experimental and colourful, so we were wowed when Fee approached us to work together. She inspired us with a vintage book about the Mapuche people. Their traditional jewellery is made by hammering silver flat, and transforming these ideas into modern jewellery using the flat sheets of acrylic in our studio was really exciting. Mrs Jones' flamboyant, extravagant approach allowed us to make huge accessories that lie somewhere between costume, clothing and jewellery. Put on one of these pieces and you instantly become a superstar.
Here's a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the story of each piece, starting with the 'Lizzie Redbone' Necklace...
For this piece, Mrs Jones brought us an illustration of a tropical Aztec bird, full of colour and pattern. It was a real challenge to translate the image into jewellery, bringing in all the different colours and shapes. We used our special techniques to give the jewellery all the delicacy and movement of a feathered bird. This piece is named after Lizzie, a lynchpin of Mrs Jones' studio team. You might meet her if you ever pay a visit!
This is the 'Crazy Girl' Necklace...
Crazy Girl herself is a real person, Tiff McGinnis. She's a kind of modern day renaissance woman. To give you an idea: she once grew three beanplants on a constantly spinning turntable, which grew into a braid. Mrs Jones brought us a model of this design in cardboard, then we took lots of coloured mirror and layered it into wings. The tassels are a Mrs Jones trademark look. The colours we used turned out to be a perfect match for Crazy Girl's amazing animated music videos, like this one, The Rebel:
This is the 'Chaguaitu' Necklace and Earrings:
'Chaguaitu' means 'earrings' in the language of the Mapuche people of Chile, and these pieces are based on a traditional Mapuche earring design, featuring a crescent shape hung with drop shapes to create movement and sound. We took the design from ancient to modern by modelling it in our trademark acrylic, in delicious matt gold.
For our photoshoot, John William styled the jewellery with unique clothing by Mrs Jones. The shoot was done on the same day as Fee's son George's Lady Gaga-themed 11th birthday party! The party and the shoot became fabulously intertwined, with the kids dressing up in Mrs Jones and Tatty Devine for a special birthday photocall. You can see the FABULOUS party pictures and read about the party on Mrs Jones' blog. How Gaga is this?
George's amazing sunglasses are actually John's, and Mrs Jones liked them so much that they're now available from her show space! Make an appointment to visit for more goodies including all the exclusive Tatty Devine pieces at www.mrsj.co.uk, or take a closer look at the four pieces available at Tatty Devine.
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