“What I really want to see is your own ideas of how the colors blend and contrast,” she explained. The floor plan showed what looked like five continents of irregular size and shape, to be carpeted with the stemless heads of flowers placed flat on the ground. “This is not a map you’re going to follow,” she said. She handed around clipboards with a floor plan, reference photographs of lichen in psychedelic colors, and pictures of a sample lichen flower mosaic she’d assembled at her Manhattan studio. After several freight-elevator loads of blooms had been ferried upstairs, she gathered her team in a circle at the center of the ten-thousand-square-foot space. She was working with a team of fourteen other florists, who wore mostly black Thompson, who has curly hair and wore reading glasses attached to a thick green chain, was dressed in a sturdy cotton shirt and forest-green pants she compared her look to a park-ranger uniform. Thompson had biked over to greet the trucks. on Sunday, and flowers began arriving at 8 A.M. At last, she’d found a client willing to realize her long-standing fantasy of lichen-inspired floral arrangements-the fashion designer Ulla Johnson, whose Spring-Summer 2023 collection was making its début in the Brooklyn Museum’s Beaux-Arts atrium. “And, of course, the best rocks are the ones that have developed lichen.” Thompson trained as a sculptor before turning to flowers, and has created projects for fashion shows, restaurants, and the White House. “I grew up in a place with very beautiful rocks,” Thompson, who is from Vermont, said. They were the work of Emily Thompson, a New York flower designer whose tastes run toward the wild and the overgrown. The vast ruffled puddles that spread out across the museum floor-swirls of green, pink, brown, red, and yellow-were composed of approximately twenty thousand chrysanthemums, carnations, zinnias, and cockscombs. The other day, the Brooklyn Museum was overtaken by lichen of unusual composition. Reese is vocal about Detroit’s potential as a creative hub-she once said that “anything I can do in New York, I can do in Detroit”-and with Hope for Flowers, she’s helping it become a destination for fashion, too.Lichen is made up of at least two organisms: fungus and algae, photosynthesizing in symbiotic harmony. Spring includes her first locally-made garments: a crisp halter dress with raw hand-placed lace appliqués around the skirt and shibori-dyed T-shirts in sheer organic-cotton mesh. Since launching in 2019, she’s built a training program for craftspeople in Detroit, with the goal of one day being able to produce collections from start to finish in the city. Reese is happy to be making beautiful, wearable, mood-lifting clothes, but she’s as passionate about building Hope for Flowers into a sustainable and purpose-driven business. A standout dress in vivid lime came with trailing, cape-like panels at the shoulders-cocktail-worthy, but cool-while other gowns had sultry cut-out backs. Most of the dresses came with adjustable ties and elastic waists in soft organic cotton and linen, they had the wear-anywhere versatility we’ve come to expect in our clothes. Her choice to style the dresses with rubber sport slides, not heels, also reflects how young women might wear them IRL. Reese photographed her models on a playground and with inflatable pool toys, mirroring her own desire to feel like a kid again. The nearly-neon palette of chartreuse, magenta, and cobalt in this season’s lineup would all but necessitate a sunny outlook to match. Going into our third pandemic year (sorry to bring it up!), she reckons her clients are craving a little joy and optimism. If she knows her way around a pretty print, Reese is equally familiar with the subtleties of how women want to look and feel. Scroll through her eponymous brand over the years-though it actually predates Vogue Runway and, having launched in 1998-and there are roses, tulips, and peonies aplenty. Based on the label’s name alone, it’s fair to expect florals in a Hope for Flowers collection, but they’re also a Tracy Reese specialty.
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