We recently welcomed a visitor to the shop who was interested in picking my brain about how they could construct a skirt made of foliage and flowers. I enjoyed listening to their ideas of how to approach the challenge and had fun sharing my experience. The visit inspired me to dig through the archives to pull up the floral-wear projects I’ve worked on in the past starting with the first.
Ex. #1 – The baby breath bolero/boa
In 2015 I was asked by the talented team behind Jodi and Kurt Photography if I could make a baby breath bolero or boa for a shoot they were having at Swannanoa in Afton, VA. Inspired by the challenge I was happy to oblige. Voila my first foray into the world of wearable floral.
Ex. 2 – The flowering branch ballet
Several years later, we were on a job together and jodi & Kurt shared thier idea of a ballet inspired shoot with the model wearing a floral tu-tu. Spring brought the blossoming of the branches and I couldn’t resist the idea to somehow fashion them into a fluffy, dreamy, blooming tu-tu. The results were better than I could’ve imagined and the mechanics involved only an ice pick and wire (lol). We shot at Waterperry Farm and it took about 20 minutes to dress the model. I loved it because it was wearable and moved with the model.
Ex. #3 – The gown of thorns
This past January I was asked to go to the Joshua tree desert to make a floral ball gown out of smoke bush with Veronica Rogers. I couldn’t decline the opportunity but imagined that smokebush was probably in rare supply in the west coast desert. Bougainvillea however, I was pretty confident we could forage- and so we did. The beautiful and talented Anna breeding was my forage partner, the make-up artist, and model on this shoot (what a woman).
Drawing on the experience of making the tu-tu, I fashioned a wearable gown that moved with the Anna as she climbed a mountain of stone boulders in 4′ heels and a thorny trailing dress while Erich Mcvey captured beautiful images as he attempted to avoid tripping over baby cactuses that were EVERYWHERE.
The things we do in the name of floral fashion. Enjoy!
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