Our school was invited by Fleurs de Villes to participate in a flower fashion show.
Fleurs de Villes combines the love of flowers, local design talent, and unique displays for international events. At this time, the floral fashion show was taking place at Bloomingdale’s, Chicago.
The outfit designed for mannequins us well as display platform have to be made out of flowers and natural materials only; no man made materials are allowed.
We have been offered to represent two companies.
The Untuckit Company requested to reflect in the design 2019 fall collections.
Challenging the conformity of conventional thinking, this environmentally inspired business suit celebrates the wild, open fields of creative business enterprises. Lush bright flower décor reflecting the excitement of change, and a color pallet inspired by the Sculptures By The Lakes Park in Dorchester, UK, all evoke the feeling of expansive adventure that comes when we kick back and open up to fresh ways of thinking.
Relax. Refresh. Rejuvenate. Untuck for a while. Why not?
To create this tailored outfit I used leaves. The bicolored silver maple leaver created a perfect mosaic pattern for the shirt. To compliment the shirt, for the pants I selected dark brown ti leaves. For the baseball had I used silver maple leaves.
For the landscape design on the platform I using focal point and botanical (vegetation) styles and grouping flowers techniques.
The rust color mums compliment deep burgundy Sumatra lilies. To make the mass of mums and lilies lighter I use rosehip berries.
Tall blue delphinium flowers create a focal point of the entire design. Thistle flowers soften the bright delphinium gradually going down to cascading stems of grass. The yellow group of lilies and gladioluses creates contrast complimenting the blue flowers. The yellow gladioluses on the background of the dark brown color of the pants look too bright. To decries the contrast I placed stems of dark brown cat tails between gladioluses.
I used dark burgundy mums to bring up the delicate snow berries. The parallel stems of the pampas grass, placed under the angle, add dynamic to the whole composition.
Untuckit store show window décor
The décor was created in collage style. The base – colored twigs. The base was decorated with air plants (succulents) and dried colored grass. Fresh gloriosa flowers are placed in wrapped with leaves water tubes.
The Hendrick’s Gin Company requested to reflect in the design the bouquet of specific gin flavors of red roses and cucumbers.
Meet Freya. Your Flower Fairy guide through the Scottish woodlands where she encourages and nurtures the bountiful bouquets of juniper, red roses, and ginger all lovingly wrapped in the delicate tendrils of cool, refreshing cucumber vines. Here she reigns, nourishing her garden, keeping it refreshed and revived. A bit of sunshine to warm the day. A cool breeze to lighten the mood. A refreshing drink every now and again—the smooth, liquid elixir to quiet the mind and soothe the soul.
The weightless delicacy of her dress absorbs the spicy, sweet fragrance emitted by the botanicals, very floral and resinous, and plays on the subtle, almost ethereal tones of her woodland domain. And a miracle happened! Beautiful flowers and leaves began to sprout in the folds of her dress.
The weightless dress was created out of white misty caspia (limonium) flowers. We used 600 stems of limonium and it took us 12 hours between three designers creating it.
Separately we created stripes out of limonium tips decorated with purple limonium, succulents, and berries. The same materials we used for the head piece.
After dressing the mannequin in the dress, we added the stripes, decorated the hip line with red roses, berries, purple limonium, colored dollar eucalyptus, and white hanging amaranthus.
The platform was decorated with table arrangements.
The focal point of the arrangement was a bottle of Hendrick’s gin.
The flowers and foliage reflects some of the ingredients of the gin flavors: red roses, juniper, ginger, pepper berries, and cucumbers. A few pitcher flowers next to the bottle symbolize glasses.
We also created 150 corsages for the VIP reception guests. We used aucuba leaves wrapped around craspedia flower and decorated with burgundy James Story orchids.
The con was attached to lacy grevillea leaves. Lastly, we pinned the school business card to corsages.
Special thanks to my dear graduate students helping me to create these designs:
Ana Aviles Carol Arteaga Diane Ouellette Ingrid Guzman Iris Reed Lusvi Rodriguez Oksana Sheketa Olena Nakonechna Simona Pupeza Tracey Valcy Veronica Kosteris
Fleurs de Villes’ Floral Couture Launches at 900 North Michigan Shops Featuring Chicago’s Top Luxury Florists
“Luxury floral couture from leading Chicago florists meets world-class brands for an immersive display at Chicago’s 900 North Michigan Shops.
Fifteen of Chicago’s leading florists, including HMR Designs, Kehoe Designs, The Revel Group, Mila Floral Art School, Flowers for Dreams, Flower Firm, Flora Chicago, Fleurs Chicago and more will be paired with world-class brands to design stunning displays from fresh flowers.
With highlights including the Joffrey Ballet’s production of Jane Eyre brought to life in fresh flowers by Fleur Chicago, a pop-up shop from Chicago Botanic Garden, Hendrick’s Gin by Mila Floral Art School, and floral-related food and beverage dining experiences from Four Seasons Hotel Chicago by Revel Decor. Sponsored by Floral Exhibits, Fleurs de Villes Jardin will feature daily workshops from florists and other brand partners.
At Fleurs de Villes Jardin – our pop-up event space – join us for our FREE floral demos and workshops by Mila Floral Art School, trends presentations, cocktail making and more from Chicago’s top lifestyle gurus and florists!”
Demo class – floral jewelry, floral hat
Demo class – creating vegetables & flowers arrangement, kids party Farewell Kindergarden table centerpiece
My favorite displays
Creating any kind of floral décor a floral designer uses botanical materials like an artist uses paints. But only masterpieces talk to a viewer.
The show is about flower fashion and that is why a designer has not only cover a mannequin with flowers but also create an outfit representing a sponsor’s product.
This display demonstrates beautiful flowers and great workmanship but under that abundance of flowers I hardly even see the mannequin and the patchwork of flowers doesn’t look like an outfit to me.
The displays below are my favorite. Most of them even have no flowers or there are used flower petals only.
Revel Décor sponsored by FOUR SEASONS HOTEL Look at this color combination – it does reflect the name of the hotel. Doesn’t it? The designer (Tori Terzakis) mostly used ordinary carnations. And look at that carnation petal top! It took 5 people and 5 hours creating it!
Revel Décor sponsored by ENCHANTÉ LINGERIE This outfit supposes to represent a lingerie company, but you can see only a delicate contour of a corset under the lacy outfit created out of bleached skeleton leaves. 5+ !!
This display demonstrates great designer’s phantasy and outstanding sculpturing work with plenty of hours and labor spent to cover it with leaves and flowers. I love it!
Magnificent job, beautiful color combnation and flower selection.
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