Our big New Year's present was being approached by the godmother of the Slow Flowers movement, Debra Prinzing to be a part of the 2018 American Flowers Week spread in Florists' Review Magazine. Of course we said, heck yes!!! American Flowers Week is an offshoot of Slow Flowers aimed to be a time of promotion of American-grown flowers and foliages and supporting the farmers who produce the blooms. At Grace Flowers Hawaii, we absolutely love to support our local farmers on the Big Island by having standing orders with our preferred flower farmers whenever we can to help the viability of their farms, local agriculture and the community.
Debra told us she specifically was looking for some sort of floral fashion made of exclusively locally grown flowers and/or foliage...and that was really the only constraints provided. Naturally, our minds starting whirling with the possibilities. In the end, we decided to have our female model adorned in strands and strands of lei, a tube top, and a hi-low style skirt made of flowers on the surface and black velvet underneath. We also decided to include a male model, and to make a cape showing off the stunning diversity of local product.
We commissioned Michelle Hartman of Big Island Grown to stitch the top, skirt and cape. From there, we worked solely on the skirt and cape, gluing flowers and foliage in a pattern of rows...
Alison's piece was construction of the cape:
And Nicole's piece was the skirt:
Each piece took two eight hour shifts to create and was stored overnight in our walk in cooler to maintain freshness.
Shannon, Terri and Julia worked on the lei for the shoot:
On-site behind the scenes photos...
To say the location chosen the day of the shoot was windy would be an understatement...that wind was whippin'! I was surprised more flowers weren't blown off of the garments, which attests to the designer's mechanical proficiency (gratuitous pats on the back).
Thank you again and again to Megan Spelman of Bikini Birdie, Gracia Malendres from Grace Makeup Artistry, Kayla Maluhia Kawai for gracing us with her beauty, Na'iwi Young for being willing to jump in so last minute (and rocking the cape like a boss), the crew of Grace Flowers Hawaii, and our beloved growers who include The Orchid People, ESP Nurseries, J&D Farms, Pacific Floral Exchange, Hawaii Isle Flowers and High Country Farms for their amazing product with which we get to play!
Now for the professional photos!
