London Flowers & Fashion

To celebrate London Fashion Week, this year floral designers Todich Floral Design have created an exquisite dress made of ivy, ferns and springtime pink hydrangeas to adorn the window of Michelin-starred restaurant Brasserie Chavot. The marvellous creation is one of many ‘living’ dresses that the creative flower shop has made for the restaurant, and the herbs entwined within it can be used by the chefs to season their dishes. In light of this wonderful news, we thought we’d explore the long relationship that fashion has had with flowers.

A long history

The connection between flowers and fashion dates way back to Ancient times when Egyptians, the Greek and Romans adorned their heads and bodies with plants and flowers for ceremonies and important occasions. It is thought that floral prints were first created in Asia, and floral fabrics first appeared in Europe during the middle ages. Italian dressmakers first created ornate, stylised designs to be worn by nobility and royalty but in Victorian times the trend for chintz, originating in India, saw dresses printed with intricate, realistic floral designs on light, plain backgrounds. At the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese and Japanese designs became popular and since then there have been endless interpretations of the floral trend and today, anything goes!

Todic Floral Design’s Flower Dress for London Fashion Week 2013

Autumn Flower Dress 2013 – London Fashion Week

Floral designs

Designers have long been inspired by nature and flowers in particular when designing their collections. It’s pretty much guaranteed that florals will be in every spring/summer when flower prints adorn summer dresses and top, reflecting the lightness and colour of the season. Dolce & Gabbana regularly use floral prints – from dramatic, rich blooms laid onto dark fabrics, to delicate wildflower designs on white dresses. You can see their creations frequently on the red carpet – on everyone from Emily Blunt and Sienna Miller to Emma Stone and Jennifer Lopez.

British designer Vivienne Westwood dedicated her autumn/winter 2009 menswear collection to gardener Andy Hulme who she met outside a florist in Paris, and who later designed a rose and wisteria vertical garden for her Battersea studio. Since launching in 2005, fashion house Erdem has earned a reputation for its beautiful floral designs, the prints of which are all created digitally. In fact, all the top fashion houses – Dior, Prada, Givenchy, Calvin Klein – you name it, have included flower designs in their collections at some point.

Inspiring gardens

Many fashion designers have loved gardens and taken inspiration from nature for their collections – including milliner Philip Treacy, Yves Saint Laurent who had a magnificent garden in Marrakesh, Christian Louboutin who had one in the grounds of his 13th century chateau and Belgian designer Dries Van Noten. The Chelsea Flower Show has attracted fashion designers in the past to create exquisite gardens – including Coco Chanel and Christian Dior who both loved their own gardens.  And last year Gucci took part for the first time – creating a garden inspired by their iconic Flora print. The botanical print was first used by the fashion house in 1966 when it was worn by Grace Kelly, and has been used on scarves, dresses and handbags. The Chelsea Flower Show garden reflected the delicate and colourful design, full of a multitude of different flowers and luscious greenery that wowed visitors.

Todic Floral Design’s Flower Dress for London Fashion Week 2015.