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Last week we had the good fortune to witness whispers between art and floral arrangements at the de Young Museum. We literally could see their harmonious interactions through colors, textures, and shapes arranged by 115 floral designers from around the world.
For those that don’t know, Bouquets to Art is an annual floral exhibition hosted by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, where floral designers are invited to bloom out creations inspired by the art collection in the de Young Museum.
Last week marked the 35th anniversary of this beloved and so awaited annual event. The celebration started with the Opening Night Gala, where eight floral dresses were exhibited to kick-off the event.
Our chosen dress to bloom this year had an overwhelming and instant acceptance by the crowd. Radiant smiles greeted as soon as the floral dress passed by, murmurs of fascination and questions of curiosity about the creations of this floral wearable piece could be heard.
THE DESIGN.
Initially, we chose three pieces of art from the de Young and interpreted them into a floral costume. We turned in proposals with their respective details, sketches, and explanations based on the inspirational interpretation for each. After a couple of weeks, we found out that the art piece assigned to us by the committee was the untitled (Soundsuit) by Nick Cave.
This art piece was perceived as imposing with great personality and character.
We were taken away by the vigorous movement of patterns and enriched textures presented on the Soundsuit.
We loved the mystery and greatness emanating from this tall one-piece suit, and we precisely wanted to capture this.
Taking advantage of the vivid and dynamic patterns and the continuity of the vertical line of the art piece, we decided to create a long floral dress accompanied by a #hairgarden piece both connected with line elements to make it into one piece, but our process was not as fast as it might look. It took about 40 hours from start to finish to come out with the floral creation.
After deciding the way to follow, we made more decisions such as, the shape of the costume, best color for the dress to use, type of flowers to be added, even makeup, and hairstyle.
Later that week, after visiting a few fabric stores, we decided to go with a bright, saturated red color. We decided to make a mermaid shaped dress but in a more architectural and fashion-forward look.
As an #ecofriendly floral designer, we made sure that all the flowers used were seasonal and #locallygrown, with the only objective to bring beauty and #sustainability together as one. Because it was the height of blooming season, we were able to gather wonderful flowers in the historic flower market of San Francisco. We truly loved using exclusive flowers from our local vendors. This selection included beautiful deep red and fragrant peonies, ruffled lysianthus, California-grown purple shaded hydrangea, stunning bright purple statice (Limonium), pink Phalaenopsis orchids, and playful trailing nandina vines.
We were so proud and satisfied to have been able to construct alternative and sustainable mechanics for the creation of this remarkable floral headpiece. The use of natural fibers and recycled materials went into the design of this structure, which then was shrouded with a blend of flowers.
We had such a blast with this creation and enjoyed the process. We currently are creating more #hairgardens and floral fashions in our studio and excited to share the innovative mechanics in future workshops presented to the public.
Flower shop in San Francisco