On the day of Anna Bones’ first rope jam, she wasn’t expecting to find a new lover and a new calling all at once. As she waded into the sea of rope and skin engulfing the room, Anna’s focus was drawn to one particular rigger across the room. Fred Hatt was exactly Anna’s type: he had a sweet, “nerdy” vibe, his eyes bespectacled and highly focused on his tying partner.
Once they finally interacted, their chemistry surfaced quickly. “We did the thing we often advise people not to do, which is to immediately tie and suspend with the first person you meet at your first ever rope event,” Anna says now through laughs. “But sometimes it works out!” I’d call that quite the understatement.
Anna and Fred are the co-founders of Anatomie Studio , a shibari education studio that is the UK’s largest and first of its kind. Based out of London, they’re now married with a young child, who they’d just put to sleep before our interview. The couple video called me from their living room, not unlike the one where they first launched their business back in 2015, two years after meeting.
Anatomie of the heart Going in, there wasn’t much of a game plan. Anna and Fred just loved the idea of building a community around their shared passion. They started inviting friends and fellow rope enthusiasts to tie together, at first hiring instructors to guide them. But there was only space for four pairs in their one-bedroom flat, and the tiny collective was already outgrowing it. Soon the couple was scouting temporary venues to host these mini rope jams.
Although the bedlam was expelled from the couple’s home, it had simply followed them onto the streets. “It got to the point where we were using taxis to transport our equipment around, all the bamboos and straps and carabiners,” Fred recalls. “Trying to coordinate all of that could be really fun, but also really exhausting.”
“It got to the point where we were using taxis to transport our equipment around, all the bamboos and straps and carabiners. Trying to coordinate all of that could be really fun, but also really exhausting.” What he didn’t know was that Anna was quietly seeking solutions. “Basically, she announced to me one day, ‘I think I want us to have our own space.’ And I think my first reaction was one of horror and disbelief,” Fred continues. “I wasn’t sure it would work and, in fact, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t work.”
Anna wasn’t offended by her partner’s hesitation. Neither of them had experience as entrepreneurs, and they would be building this plane as they flew it. “I think he thought I was crazy, and to be honest, he might have been right!” she admits. “It’s a bit of a miracle that it even worked. It was a pretty chaotic way to open a business.”
But little by little, the studio took shape. Once Anatomie found its forever home, the rope jams went from once-weekly to twice, and soon they added workshops and shibari life drawing events. The couple then developed a curriculum around their students’ goals and desires, launching a blog that features crowdsourced intel from the community.
The Anatomie Studio 10-year anniversary event.
Anna and Fred have even opened a store , where they sell their own hand-treated rope and starter kits online. They were beyond thrilled watching their enterprise mature, and when Anna’s contract at her day job expired, she realized it might be time to give Anatomie her full focus. “I just had this vision of a space with people socializing and tying in it, that was diverse and inclusive and joyful,” she says. “I just had to try and make it work.”
Partners in rope and in life Anna is undoubtedly the visionary of the two. Dreamy and highly driven, she takes her curiosity very seriously, always honoring its invitation to explore the unknown. Anna had moved to London for her Masters and PhD in human evolution after studying archaeology and anthropology in her native Toronto. In fact, her nickname – ‘Bones’ – was born of this fascination.
It’s a perfect example of how naturally she channels her interests toward lived experiences. “I’ve had a lot of moments in life where I’m just so sure I have to walk through a particular door, or complete this degree, or move to that city,” Anna says with conviction. “I don’t know why, it just comes from above.” All she has to do is trust it.
That was also true of Fred. Shortly after their fated first encounter, Anna spent three months in Toronto writing her thesis. She’d never had a serious play partner before, and she couldn’t get rope off her mind – nor the handsome Scottish rigger with the physics degree and a soft spot for heavy metal.
At first she wasn’t sure what she truly missed: the ropes themselves or the man who was tying them. But once Anna joined the rope scene in her home city and was tying with new partners, clarity came before long. “I realized that, yeah, rope is really nice, but I actually miss being in his ropes,” she says, clearly savoring the feeling.
If true love is rare, then finding it with the perfect tying partner is a one-in-a-million moment. For Anna, there was one really clear sign that Fred was that person for her. “I find it very difficult to fully feel safe and relax into the experience if there isn’t a connection,” she says. “He’s really the only person I feel completely safe with in rope.”
“I find it very difficult to fully feel safe and relax into the experience if there isn’t a connection. He’s really the only person I feel completely safe with in rope.”
Across the Atlantic, Fred was also still pondering that springtime rope jam and the newcomer he had so eagerly bound there. As they kept connecting over texts and calls, he realized his initial hunch was starting to bear out. “I’d already been in the scene for a year and a half before meeting Anna,” he says. “I had a feeling much earlier on that there was something especially interesting about her.”
Once they were back on the same continent, their worlds began to blend as they fell more deeply in love with rope and each other. By the time they’d launched their prototype studio from the living room, their dynamic was firmly established: she was the intuitive, spontaneous one whose instincts drove their progress, while he would keep things grounded in facts and figures, always armed with a spreadsheet to keep them from getting too fanciful.
It’s a perfect set of skills for joint business owners, and for this co-founder couple, that’s the best part of working together. “If I was running [Anatomie] by myself, I probably would have run it into the ground!” Anna jokes. This doesn’t mean it’s always rosy. The pair can definitely butt heads at times, especially over money or logistics. But they’re excellent at resolving conflict, and can even uncover new ideas through it. So of course they make a super creative team too.
A decade of Anatomie Studio Outside of Anatomie, the couple also engages shibari from an artistic standpoint, using Fred’s rigging and Anna’s photography for fashion shoots, music videos, performance art, and more. The couple’s web portfolio, known as Bones & Rope, is an outgrowth of the dream they’ve been building. “We were doing these projects we really enjoyed, and I guess we were proud of them, too,” says Fred of the venture. “It was a good excuse to document our work.”
Part of preserving their relational harmony involves the occasional retreat from rope, which can feel all-consuming at times. Making space for hobbies like woodworking, 3D-printing, and gardening offers them new ways to connect and create, all while restoring them to run Anatomie. After 10 years, both the couple and their studio are thriving, having seemingly found the perfect balance.
As Anna and Fred reflect on their first decade in business, what they’re proudest of is the extended network of rope lovers they’ve built through their partnership. “Anatomie is two things for us: it mirrors our personal journey as people, but it also has a life of its own, and means something different to everyone in the community,” says Anna. So it’s very fitting that the couple threw a huge party to mark this incredible milestone with everyone.
“Anatomie is two things for us: it mirrors our personal journey as people, but it also has a life of its own, and means something different to everyone in the community.” The event, which took place over a weekend in June, included a rope jam, an installation, and a creative showcase for the performers. My favorite detail is how closely it followed a different anniversary — that of their wedding. It marked six years since the couple tied the knot (sorry, pun intended!), so giving them that much more to celebrate. May the future bring them many more years like this one!
.svg)
