This summer, one of Interflora’s many talented hands, Janet Hodgson, has inspired florists in Manchester, florists in Stockport and florists and flower fans all over the UK with her flair for combining flora and fashion. Ms Hodgson fashioned a dress (pun intended) from of a variety of beautiful blooms donated by generous florists in the Bury region, from germini to hydrangeas, orchids, roses and everything in between, bringing a whole lot of excitement to The Rock open air shopping centre for the celebration of its first birthday.
Ms Hodgson’s floral dress certainly attracted rather a lot of attention from those in the floristry and fashion industries during and after the event, impressing visitors from all across the country who had learned of The Rock’s celebration plans.
The final product turned out to be more a work of art than a fashion garment, and is certain to fire a national interest in floristry and floral art in the future, with florists inspired to be more creative with their skills than simply using them to arrange beautiful bouquets.
“The challenge was making it last as the original brief wanted us to use plants,” Ms Hodgson told the Interflora blog. It would appear that she had no trouble whatsoever with adapting her skills, having brought such an incredible to life for the Bury shopping centre’s anniversary.
So proud is the Rock of Mr Hodgson’s predominantly pink and purple work of art that they’ve used it as the Twitter icon for the shopping centre itself! The picture features a woman expertly modelling the floral frock, really showing off its true colours
But the dress’ creation didn’t come without any hitches. It soon became clear that the weight of the flowers became too much for the existing frame, which was kindly supplied by a local theatre company, Ms Hodgson had to rush to reinforce it with chicken wire and tent poles, no less!
“We had to reinforce it with tent poles and chicken wire – it was like we were on Blue Peter!” beamed Hodgson.
And Ms Hodgson was delighted to finally unleash her work to the public gaze: “I have to admit that when I first saw it on the model it looked so fabulous that I cried! It was a very proud moment for me. It was such fun!”
And with such generosity from local florists, Ms Hodgson could never have failed to produce something really wonderful. She was able to compose the frock out of the best flowers Stockport, Manchester and Bury had on offer.