5th Sept 2007
Cate Blanchett Wears Beatwear Boots for Dylan Movie

Beatwear supplied '60's boots to Cate Blanchett for the forthcoming Dylan movie. We had to make special boots in our factory in Italy and fly them direct to the movie set in a very short timescale. We understand that she really likes them so the next time you see her out and about look out for our boots.

"VENICE (Reuters) - That Cate Blanchett found her latest screen role "very scary" comes as no great surprise. She was playing Bob Dylan.

The unusual casting was made by U.S. director Todd Haynes, whose movie "I'm Not There" is a complex portrayal of the singer-songwriter using six performers to play Dylan, including Australian-born Blanchett, a young black actor and Richard Gere. In competition at the Venice film festival, where its world premiere is on Tuesday, the biopic seeks to avoid reducing Dylan to an easily definable type, and gives a sense of how difficult the ever-changing musician is to categorise. "Cate was scared. She told me many times that this was a very scary challenge for her," Haynes told reporters after a press screening of the two-and-a-quarter hour film. Blanchett, 38, was not at the briefing. Blanchett, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Katharine Hepburn in "The Aviator", plays Dylan at a time when he shocked folk followers by embracing amplified rock and struggled with the media which sought to define him as a folk protest singer. In her black-and-white sequences, Blanchett's hair is dark and frizzy, and she adopts some of the mannerisms of Dylan, although the performance is not meant as a direct mimic."

Lennon Musical

Beatwear manufacture for many film, theatre and special performances. For example, we had been responsible for making of the suits, jackets and footwear for the Lennon Musical. See the Wikipedia entry for the Lennon Musical here.

I Never Thought I Would Meet Debbie Harry!

One of the most exciting times for me was when the band Blondie called into our store in Liverpool to buy boots and the Chesterfield Suits to be inducted into the 2006 Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame. Debbie Harry was my schoolboy fantasy and here I am 30 years later talking to her whilst the band buy my footwear and clothing!

Pinch me! Clem Burke has been a regular customer of Beatwear over the years when I first met him in the store he was trying on the Tan Shea stadium jacket and he asked me if I thought it was too tight me not knowing who he was asked if he was in a tribute band as they tend to wear them very snug. Luckily he smiled and ended up inviting me to the show that night. To add insult to injury I declined as I was attending my 5 year old daughter's carol concert. Priorities!

Clem Burke and Chris Stein wear the Black Chesterfield suits above whilst Debbie accepts the award.