It’s finally here! Our newest original print, Mud Cloth. Inspired by our Co-Founder Bee’s trip to Ghana in 2018, where she returned from with the most incredible hand block printed fabrics and photographs of all of the bold painted buildings inhabited by the artisans we collaborate with for our sister brand Artisans & Adventurers. Our Head of Design, Amy, was so inspired by all of this material, she thought it would be fun to pay homage to Ghana's textiles and architecture but in our signature bright colours.
All of our original prints begin life in the creative mind of Amy, before being hand drawn, made into a repeat pattern and digitally printed onto 100% cotton in the Peak District. When describing her creative process, Amy said “I always start by making a bit of a mood board, collaging together pictures from Bee’s trip with other imagery from books and the internet. I took inspiration from the bold patterns used in Ghana and wanted the background of the print to be black like a lot of the traditional Ghanaian textiles. However, after playing around with neutral tones I opted for a slightly 80’s inspired mint and purple colour palette which really pops against the dark background and is very Hiro + Wolf!”
We had a lot of fun planning and directing the photoshoot for this fabulous new print! We wanted to create the feel of an African savannah and Bee found the perfect location a lot closer to home! The dried out wheat of a local farmers field about 20 minutes drive from our Margate store provided the perfect setting for all of our handmade props. Amy worked with her Cabinet Maker husband, Freddy, to design and build the props. From her mood board, Freddy first made paper moquettes before heading into his workshop to build the life-size props from MDF. Amy painted them in their back garden and Freddy had the brilliant idea of cutting up beach mats for the roofs! The ground was very hard and dry on the day so he was on hand to stake them into the soil. We think they did a fantastic job!
A lot of work goes into planning our photoshoots and we had not one but two dogs unfortunately have to pull out the morning of the shoot! Thankfully Chico, a feisty chihuahua, and Beau, a very chilled out Greyhound (who had no issues with riding in the backseat of a two door Fiat) came to the rescue and ended up modelling for us two days in a row which we were so grateful for! Our good friends Danielle Romero and local illustrator and Artist, Eve Lloyd-Knight along with her dog Sid also did some fantastic modelling for us. We were blessed with a gorgeous, sunny September day and all the dogs were so well behaved together, as was Amy’s four month old, Maximilien, who enjoyed his first photoshoot experience helping Daddy with the props. Welcome to the Hiro + Wolf team Maxi!
You can shop our new Mud Cloth print online and in store now! Find all of your favourite Hiro + Wolf products in this colourful new design, including our new Vegan Range and Cat Harnesses.