fashion design | Petal & Pins

Fashionable Flowers

dresses in an exhibition mannequin dress detail

On a recent trip to Melbourne I saw the 200 Years of Australian Fashion exhibition at the NGV and this wedding dress (circa 1952) designed by Beril Jents was just one of the dresses that not surprisingly caught my eye.

Over the years I’ve made a garden full of flowers from fabric myself – from evening and wedding dress embellishments to adornments for lapels or hats. Just lately I’ve been making ‘spring blossom’ out of paper for part of our petal & pins display at our second trade fair appearance.

We’re launching our new Garden Party card collection, a Black Label range of notecard sets and I have designed a new collection of limited edition prints we’ve called Atelier Pétale featuring a vintage fashion inspired sketch with hats I’ve styled from flowers from our garden.

So our garden flowers continue to inspire me creatively and petal & pins continues to grow! We head to Melbourne next week for the trade fair and Mr Petal & Pins and I are getting excited, thank you for following us on this journey you are part of our story!

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June 24, 2016

Unexpected Colours

vintage flower dress

We were sent a beautiful bouquet of flowers at the end of May and I put them in the hallway to enjoy in passing and to avoid the rapid decline that a vase of flowers can have in a room that is heated during winter.

I try to remember to change the water and snip stems regularly but sometimes it’s easy to forget in the bustle of life. I also like to let a vase linger past its prime – there is beauty in decaying flowers – shapes change and unexpected colours appear.

Ahead of the weekend I decided to empty that hallway vase and another, but not before turning the aged beauty they contained into a Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe dress.

In my Meet The Maker interview I spoke about my childhood ‘dress up box’ and my inspiration for this particular Garden Fairy’s dress was the idea of it coming out of such a box or an old suitcase – transformed with age and time into something quite different with a special beauty.

There are bergenias, lilies, proteas and gerberas in the mix, can you imagine it brand new!

floral decay 1
blue tinge

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April 8, 2016

Hemline

Hemline detail for the Renegade Luxe dress.

March 31, 2016

light & space

I have been wanting to share some photos of sunset as experienced at artist James Turrell’s Amarna installation since I first went to view it but how it connected with a blog about fashion and flowers eluded me…until last night.

Fashion designer Alexi Freeman launched his Autumn/Winter White Noise 2016 Collection at twilight out at MONA using Amarna as the runway.

James Turrell is an American artist primarily concerned with light and space. Amarna is one of more than 80 Skyspace installations he has built around the world and is best viewed at sunrise or sunset.

Alexi Freeman collaborated with shoe designer Preston Zly and accessory designer Kate Rohde to present an ethereal collection.

The evening was enhanced by Byron Meyer’s live soundscapes, Ainslie Walker‘s beautiful bespoke scent Nocturne filling the air and of course those other two fashion show requisites – friends and champagne!

January 25, 2016

Renegade Luxe

Some fashion collections stay with you long after the season has past and the designer has presented others.

It could be the silhouette, the fabrics or the combination of colours – which is what it was for me with Jean Paul Gaultier’s prêt-à-porter Pirate Collection from Spring/Summer 2008.

We were in Paris that Spring and went to the Gaultier boutique on avenue George V.
I lingered at the pieces that caught my eye to drink in the details and gently run my fingers over the cloth. Khaki, brown and olive green in plains, stripes and camouflage prints were given a touch of renegade luxe with the combinations of fabrics and embellishments.

This summer, while looking out my sunroom window down onto the plum tree and the ripening elderberries that memory was stirred by the similarity in colours and contrasting textures.

I pulled out the catalogue brought back from Paris to revisit the collection and was also inspired to design some plum leaf and elderberry dresses for my Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe.

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January 19, 2016

Short & Sweet

I had planned to write about something all together different – I’ve had a post half written and something new from my Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe to share for well over a week… best laid plans and all that.

So it is just going to be short and sweet – a bit like this dress I created this morning on the miniature dressmaker’s stand that usually sits on my workroom mantle piece.

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July 17, 2015

Subtle Shading

The japonica is just starting to flower in my garden and I picked a few sprays to put in a vase with the buds still closed.

In the warmth inside they opened into lovely tones of cream and peachy pink instead of the usual bright colour that punctuates the bareness of my patchwork hedge in winter.

The colours remind me of a hat that once belonged to my grandmother. I think the delicate layered feathers would have once been a more uniform tone but I like the subtle shading created by the passing of time.

That faded glamour also inspired me to create this dress for my Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe with the japonica flowers.

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June 10, 2015

Other Places & Sunny Faces

The heartsease seeds I planted in summer are thriving.

Even with our cold start to winter they are still flowering and I find myself wandering down to where they’re growing just to see their ‘sunny faces’ – such a simple thing always makes me smile and lifts my mood.

I’ve been picking some and letting others go to seed so I can scatter them in other places.

You may remember the tiny no bigger than a thimble vase I use for them in Love-in-Idleness – just one of the other names they go by.

I have been contemplating designing a dress with them for My Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe but so far have just picked enough to create this delicate bodice.

April 18, 2015

When Old Is New Again

If your wardrobe is anything like mine it is easy to lose something – it gets pushed to the back where it doesn’t rub shoulders with the favourites and can easily be forgotten.

And then one day you reach for that particular hanger and are met with a pleasant surprise. Like this rhododendron dress from my Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe.

I created it in October 2012 using flowers from a friend’s garden after a fun day of rhubarb plants, tea cake and gin & tonics.

In Rhubarb & Rhododendrons – inspired by that day – you can see another style rhododendron dress which became part of my Spring Gala card collection.

Today we are getting together to bottle apples from my garden. I’ll resist serving cake as we are joining another friend later for dinner but a gin & tonic might be a nice reward when all the apples are peeled and done.

And I think this dress I’ve unearthed from the back of the wardrobe might just be my new favourite!

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February 26, 2015

Gather & Mingle

‘Ahh nasturtiums…I’ve written about you before and the lesson your carefree habits bring. You have really taken off at the bottom of my garden now – several colours mingling together sprouted from seeds gathered from those unexpected places’

This Garden Fairy’s nasturtium sundress is embellished with tiny daisies from my lawn. You can see another in my previous post Slightly Defiant & Carefree.

5 Comments

Petal & Pins

Tag: fashion design

July 30, 2016

Fashionable Flowers

June 24, 2016

Unexpected Colours

April 8, 2016

Hemline

March 31, 2016

light & space

January 25, 2016

Renegade Luxe

January 19, 2016

Short & Sweet

July 17, 2015

Subtle Shading

June 10, 2015

Other Places & Sunny Faces

April 18, 2015

When Old Is New Again

February 26, 2015

Gather & Mingle

Tag: fashion design

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