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Eimee
In this Floral fashion show, I had the opportunity to collaborate with Southside Blooms, a non-profit training center in Chicago teaching young people about sustainability and urban farming. Here, I was paired with a high school student to create fashion looks made from real flowers! The goal of this fashion show was to promote the flower shop, Southside Blooms, as part of the Chicago Eco House project, whose mission is to alleviate poverty using sustainability and creating jobs for young people in Chicago’s toughest neighborhoods.
In our first meeting, we discussed design ideas and the kinds of flowers we could use. The next meeting consisted of the students, who were also workers at the flower shop, gathering flowers we were interested in using and other flowers that could work. This was important because we wanted to find flowers that would not wilt or be parched within a day. In our third meeting, we experimented with the fabric samples designers brought and tested with florist glue and tape to get the flowers to stay on the garments.
Designers were responsible for designing, making the garments, and finding a model. When all of that had come together, at the last meeting, we glued all the flowers on the garments and stored them away in a flower freezer overnight. This would prevent wilting of the flowers the next day when the fashion show would take place and a photoshoot.
