Bottega Veneta spring summer 2013
This year marks the one hundredth anniversary of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. You are probably thinking this is a strange way to begin a fashion article however the Chelsea Flower Show is actually a lot like Fashion Week.
Celebrities, influential people in the industry, the press and people from all over the world come to see designer’s put their work on display and all the latest trends; landscape garden trends that is.
The world famous annual flower show is opened each year by a member of the royal family and is popular with celebrities including Elton John, Amanda Holden, Joanna Lumley, Lilly Allen, Dame Helen Mirren and Dame Maggie Smith. In fact celebrities love it so much that this year, to mark the centenary, many of them have painted their very own garden gnomes to auction off for RHS charities. From the very first Chelsea Flower Show in 1913 garden gnomes have been banned as they were classed as vulgar however this year organisers decided to make an exception and introduce them with a special meaning.
I am a big fan of gardening and one minute you could see me covered in mud from my vegetable patch and the next getting all glammed up for a fashion show. I think the thing I love most about gardening is the effort you put in and the satisfaction you get from eating your own produce or admiring sweet smelling flowers. I love to sit out in my garden on a sunny day and admire my work and I feel exactly the same way about a fashion show or photo shoot that I have styled, a sense of satisfaction and pride at a job well done.
Although we always see floral prints in Spring this year there seems to be more than ever before. It almost seems as if we have become so fed up with the lack of sunshine over the past few summers that designers have decided to just create their own sunshine with an array of fabulous floral prints in all shapes and sizes.
A huge range of designers including 3.1 Phillip Lim, Mulberry, Stella McCartney, Erdem, Bottega Veneta, Etro and many more unleashed their flower power for the spring summer 2013 season and it wasn’t just your usual run of the mill ditsy prints. There were oriental styles, bold unusual graphic prints, grungy florals, clashing prints and of course the odd vintage style tea dress.
Although I have never been into girly fashion and prefer to be that little bit different with my sense of style I do admit to having a soft spot for florals. In fact I love floral prints so much that I probably have every kind of floral print you could imagine and when it is wet and windy outside I love nothing more than getting dressed up in my brightest boldest floral prints and ignoring the weather.
Selfridges in London, who always have the most amazing window displays, last week made a statement and encouraged shoppers to wear florals to the Chelsea Flower show and even had their own garden gnomes with signs saying ‘plant the seed of style’. It seems as though Britain has gone flower mad and I think it is great to be inspired by nature and the beauty within our gardens so why not get in touch with your feminine side and embrace the flower power.
