Miracle-Gro Millinery: Tulips and Pansies, The Headdress Affair

Now in its seventh year, Village Care of New York's annual "Tulips and Pansies: The Headdress Affair" is not your average benefit fashion show - pair New York's top florists with the city's most creative fashion designers, and the end result? Floral headdresses akin to wearable rooftop gardens, that are so outrageous and over-the-top they could be their own float in the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif.

Take a look:

















The show, held on Thursday, May 15, raised funds to support Village Care’s medical and other support programs for the 1500 AIDS and HIV patients they serve on a daily basis. With Heatherette's Richie Rich and Traver Rains and model and actress Lydia Hearst as the event's co-chairs and James Aguiar of "Full Frontal Fashion" as the exuberant emcee, fashion met floral in 18 elaborately constructed headdresses by designers such as Betsey Johnson, Alvin Valley, Catherine Malandrino, Yigal Azrouel, Shoshanna, Lela Rose, Magda Berliner, Cynthia Steffe, Jordi Scott, b. michael, Alexis Bittar and others.


above: host James Aguiar

"It smells amazing, the girls look amazing and the drag queens look amazing!" said Richie Rich, who participated in the show last year with a “big flying saucer floral concoction.”




Though working with fresh flowers is no easy feat ("They don’t last! You’re trying to get them on, either sew them or with the glue gun, but the glue gun melts the flowers, and they wilt. It’s like an 'America's Next Top Model' challenge!" explained Richie Rich), it didn’t stop the designers from dreaming up headdress that challenged gravity and gave a whole new meaning to the famous sixties song lyric, "If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."


From a corset constructed entirely of pussy willow buds resembling tiny pearls by Empress 22 Charlene Chivoe of Imperial Court of New York (in collaboration with Tara McInerney of Morningside Greenhouse) to long garlands of flowers delicately woven into the model's hair in Cynthia Steffe and Renny and Reed's bohemian headdress, the results were varied, but for the five judges – Patrick McDonald, Alison Berlin, Maggie Norris, Frank Di Caro and Richie Rich – there were some clear stand-outs.

The judges named four winners – "Most Outrageous" went to Empress 13 Anne Tique of Imperial Court of New York in collaboration with Brian Fischer of Morningside Greenhouse for their enormous headdress featuring pencil cactus, orchids, peony petals and tillandesis; "Most Beautiful" was Alexis Bittar and Flowers Rock’s Victorian Cyber Goth creation; "Most Original" went to FORM New York and Aristocratic by Tammy's white orchid and blue ostrich feather design and "Most Engaging" was awarded to the biggest headdress of the evening, Betsey Johnson and David Tutera’s "pussy willow chapeau" with irises, petal brim and grass construction.

here are some fun backstage shots for you:


image sources: Fashion Wear Daily/wire image/getty images.

• Be sure to check out the post on the 2009 Tulips & Pansies Headdress Affair here, It's even more spectacular!

Design The Next Pair Of Dr. Martens Boots!

Choose your canvas: the 8-hole or the 14-hole boot. Use pens, use paint, use whatever. Use your imagination. They've provided some tools here. They've made it fun and easy, with templates, you can download, color changing with the click of a mouse, and more. So don't be intimidated... go for it.



Or if you want, you can use your own tools and templates. They will have two winners. One voted for by the people. The other chosen by their panel of industry insiders. You enter it. They’ll actually make them. You’ll see them in shops. Worldwide.

Last year's winners available for purchase:


above:
A custom design by Jeremy Asher Lynch of San Diego, CA, entitled "Faces." 2007 winner of our boot design contest. This is a limited edition and each pair is numbered. Buy the 'faces' boot in the US here.

Your competition (or inspiration).

Above: design of the week as selected by the panel of judges.

Below are the highest rated top ten designs as of sunday, june 8th:






A bit of background on Dr. Martens:

Klaus Maertens

Dr. Martens is the stuff of legends. It all began near Munich, Germany in 1945 when Dr. Klaus Maertens injured his foot in a skiing accident in the Bavarian Alps. To make walking easier during the healing process, he designed a shoe with an air-cushioned sole. Using old rubber tires, he constructed soles that had air trapped within closed compartments. He showed his prototype to his engineer/inventor friend, Dr. Herbert Funck, and together they decided to develop and produce the shoes. Not only did the shoe solve the doctor’s immediate problem, but it also started to sell well in Germany.

On April 1st, 1960, the famous eight-hole Dr. Martens boot – the so-called 1460 was born. This was followed by the 1914 with its 14-holes. Both of these boots were immediately embraced as a working-class essential across the UK.



But then something incredible started to happen. Like some viral infection, the postmen, factory workers and transport unions who had initially bought the boot by the thousand, were joined by the rejects, outcasts and rebels from the fringes of society. At first, it was the working-classes; before long it was the masses.



Skinheads were the first subculture to adopt the boot in the early 1960s. They were followed by nearly all the tribes that emerged over the next four decades: Mods, glam rockers, punks, ska, psychobillies, grebos, goths, industrialists, nu-metal, hardcore, straight-edge, grunge, Britpop, emo… etc.

Subcultures are exactly that – outside of mainstream culture – true to form these disparate ‘tribes’ rapidly began customising the boots: hot knifing, spraying, cutting, painting, deliberately roughing them up or obsessively polishing them to a luminous shine.



High fashion has similarly messed around with the core design in order to include the famous boot in their collections over the last 50 years. Designers who have produced their own unique customisations include Manolo Blahnik, Jean Paul Gaultier, Vivian Westwood, Gareth Pugh and most recently Yohji Yamamoto.

Regardless of whether it was a street tribe, musician or fashion legend who was personalising this iconic footwear, the common denominator was the ‘person’, the individual, the creative streak that lies deep within every Dr. Martens wearer. No marketing was ever needed, or used, to create this cycle of invention, and as such this forged a purity that has made the boot one of the most recognisable symbols of creativity and rebellion purely through the people who’ve worn them.

We will be forever indebted to the people who have made us what we are today and continue to do so by using Dr. Martens boots as a blank canvas for their own relentless creativity.

above photos and information courtesy of dr. martens

Now, get designing!

Jan Vormann Combines The Very Old With The Very New in 2 Unusual Projects

Artist Jan Vormann's Dispatchwork, 2007, Venti Eventi - Bocchignano, Rome, Italy. Plastic construction pieces (e.g. Legos®) added to centuries old buildings in Italy:











The above project was done in Bocchignano, Italy, a village close to Rome, as part of the group project "20 Eventi". The group of artists developed projects for 4 villages of the Sabina region and decided to create a compilation of drawings, for collectors to purchase, and to support this project.

Moje, Twoje Miasto (My, Your city) - Art Museum, Lodz, Poland

For the exhibition "Moje Twoje Miasto" (My, your city) in Lodz, Poland, he created "destructif modernization":

A custom-shaped mirror was installed outside, on the right-hand corner-wall, of the Museum. Entering to visit the exhibition there seemed to appear a big whole in the building. By using the mirror as a material, he referred to one type of modern architecture, using reflecting surfaces as front.





Jan Vormann started his studies in Berlin and currently studies, lives and works in St. Petersburg.
see the artist's site here.