Song for the Mute Sydney Flagship by Pattern Studio

It doesn’t take being a fashion or design buff to recognise that Sydney-based Pattern Studio has encapsulated something sort of remarkable at 350 George Street. There, inserted into the original high street, is a glimpse of the future, and the future is Song for the Mute.

This 100-square-meter heritage listed volume provides a perfect backdrop and introduction to the cult Australian label’s ethos of “accordance through contrast”, and so it seems fitting for a flagship store. The space is wrapped in a ribbon of rich, marbled stone, with demerara tones grounded in a black base. Here, the warmth of the hardwood plywood panelling that makes up the back canvas of the store is contrasted, the mid-century aesthetic working against (yet simultaneously for) the existing stonework.

Heritage constraints meant that the team at Pattern had to avoid fixing onto the existing elements, resulting in the clever use of freestanding forms and custom creations such as mirrors that mimic dressing screens, disrupting the rhythm of the classical fabric of the space and refracting one’s gaze around the room.

What makes this an almost visceral experience, however, is the presence of the Space Odyssey-esque pods that seem almost monolithic in their stance and how they occupy the centre of the room. With inspiration drawn from French Architect Jean Prouvé’s ‘Better Days House’, these mid-century-hued egg-white and olive-green pods suggest that something otherworldly might be housed within. There is a sense that they have been drawn open, and one almost expects smoke to billow out from within, as the spectacular clothing pieces are revealed and introduced to Earth. Instead, a sense of calm is evoked in the stillness and strength of these sculptural pieces with their micro-cement bases, speaking to the poetic nature of the brand.

Pattern Studio Song For The Mute Sydney Flagship Photo Tom Ross Yellowtrace 13

Pattern Studio Song For The Mute Sydney Flagship Photo Tom Ross Yellowtrace 14

There is a sense of surrealism, however, evident in Pattern’s use of material and textural assemblage, paying homage to the work of André Breton. The stitching together of the existing, the mid-century and the now (if not the future) echoes what is evident in the brand’s approach to garments. As the team at Pattern Studio alliteratively put it, a “perpetual preoccupation with the paradoxical”.

What we have here is the creation of the third spatial dimension—one which exists between the juxtaposed, and one that is very comfortably inhabited by Song for the Mute.