Celebrate American Flowers Week 2021
Queen of Zinnias • A luxe gown fashioned from the cut-flower trial grounds
A seed company's flower team joined in the spirit of American Flowers Week by creating a floral gown for the 2021 Botanical Couture collection. The team's flower and herb product manager and its flower trial manager had helped Slow Flowers designers in prior yearsbefore by harvesting and growing flowers for them. In summer 2020 they decided to make a gown themselves.
Drawing on fine arts training and the pair's deep knowledge of the Zinnia genus, they got to work. "We took the advice to focus on one kind of flower to heart," the product manager said. "Zinnias are our second biggest flower crop after sunflowers, and our trial plot is always large. We love them, and we have so many that we could make something as over-the-top as a flower dress."
Photography: a staff photographer
Model: the team's trial manager
Hair/Makeup: the team's trial manager
Floral Palette: annual flowers and foliage
The two spent a good part of the summer trading ideas. "We kept asking, 'Can we really do this? Can we pull it off?'" the designer recalled. "Eventually we committed, and we walked the fields to see what caught our eye. We loved the eucalyptus and 'Mahogany Splendor' hibiscus foliage paired with zinnias for a big, dramatic palette."
They started from a base garment: a bridesmaid's dress from the model's closet that fit well but would probably never be worn again. The designer sketched a flattering shape based on that dress and added a lavish flower bustle to trail behind it.
The gown was built in two parts. For the bodice, wine-red hibiscus and sage-green eucalyptus leaves were bonded to fabric panels with fusible webbing. "The leaves had to stay damp or they'd curl away from the fabric, so we misted the panels and kept them between wet paper towels until they went on the dress," she explained. For the bustle, lots of fine window screen and layers of tulle were gathered into a base for thousands of zinnias.
After picking bucket after bucket of flowers, the team and some co-workers who volunteered met at the designer's home to trim and glue blooms in reds, scarlets, roses, purples, wines and corals. Many of the company's zinnia varieties and mixes appear in the gown. The finished train, covered edge to edge in flowers, looks like a draped tapestry.
Then a problem came up: fitting the piece around the model's waist. "The bustle was so heavy that the skirt frame couldn't stay up on her hips," the designer remembers. "My husband came home from work to a shop full of flowers while we tried to fix it. Luckily he's a mechanical engineer and a great sewer, and he built a heavy-duty belt and corset that fit her waist perfectly."
Normally the trial manager is in a plaid shirt and jeans, collecting data in the flower fields; a zinnia gown and makeup are not her usual look. "Luckily a friend of mine is a professional opera singer, and she was happy to give me tips and lots of her makeup," she said.
The staff photographer shot the gown in the zinnia fields in the golden light just before dusk late that summer, catching the flowers at their best.
For the designer, the project was about much more than showing off zinnias and other cut flowers. "Making the dress felt extra special that year, because for many of us it was the first thing we'd done together in person since early 2020. It was a magical, happy moment you only get from working on something together. Some people stayed for the whole photo shoot just to help and watch. We were all on cloud nine."
Elements of a Garment
These are the zinnias used most in the gown…
Celebrate All Seasons with Slow Flowers Botanical Couture
Floral Palette: Washington-grown hellebores
Production support: Pamela Youngsman, PoppyStarts
Designer: Carolyn Kulb,
Model: Model: Tasia Baldwin
Hair/Makeup: DeLeana Guerrero, Luxe Artistry Seattle
Photography: Missy Palacol Photography
Location: Snoqualmie Pass, Washington
MIDSUMMER FROLIC
Floral palette: native perennials, grasses, annuals and berries grown in Wisconsin
Lead designer and flower farmer: Erin Schneider, Hilltop Community Farm
Design assistance: Diane Mikonowicz and Rob McClure
Seamstress: Linda Gillen
Model: Aimee Ziegahn
Photographer: Patricia Espedal, Treasure People Photography
Location: La Valle, Wisconsin
Now in its seventh year, American Flowers Week runs from June 28 to July 4 each year as an advocacy, education and outreach campaign by the Slow Flowers Society.
Modeled on British Flowers Week, the U.S. campaign was started in 2015 by Slow Flowers Society founder Debra Prinzing, who timed the online event to coincide with the week of July 4th, Independence Day.
Her view is that American-grown flowers deserve celebration every week of the year, but that dedicating one week to awareness draws more attention to the cause from both the media and the public.
Growers, gardeners and designers who work with domestic flowers are invited to tag posts #americanflowersweek to promote the campaign and the Slow Flowers movement. More resources and free downloads are at americanflowersweek.com.
The organizers describe the Botanical Couture seriesas playful and strategic at once. Presenting flowers as fashion, photographed and styled like an editorial story, puts the spotlight on the growers and designers in the Slow Flowers movement and changes how people see flowers: not just a short-lived token of a moment, but art, sculpture, fashion and a sign of our wish to connect with nature.
