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Tag Archives: Ashley Johnson

The 2018 American Flowers Week Floral Fashion Collection

27 Sunday May 2018

Posted by Debra Prinzing in American Flowers Week 2018, Floral Design, News & Events, Resources for Farmers & Florists

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

2018 American Flowers Week Floral Fashions, 7 Petals Floral Design, Alex Brooks Photography, Alex M. Brooks, Alison Grace Higgins, Amanda Lane, Angela Cheung, Ashley Johnson, Aztec Dahlias, Becca Henry, Becca Henry Photography, Berkeley Danysh, Beth Van Sandt, Bikini Birdie Photography, Carly Jenkins, Dan'yell Powell, ESP Nurseries, Faye Zierer Krause, Flora Organica Designs, Full Bloom Flower Farm, Grace Flowers Hawaii, Grace Makeup Artistry, Gracie Malendres, Hawaiian Isle Flowers, Hedda Brorstrom, High Country Farms, J&D Farms, Joshua Veldstra, Kate Rowe, Katherine Sherba, Kayla Maluhia Kawai, Kelly Shore, Killing Frost Farm, Leon Villagomez Photography, Lisa Thorne, MaryAnn Nardo, Meghan Spelman, Mighty Fine Farm, Morgan Mireles, Na'iwi Young, Nicole Cordier, Nicole Cordier Wahlquist, Old Goat Farm, Pacific Floral Exchange, Petals by the Shore, Sarah Reyes, Scenic Place Peonies, Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, Sophia Lane, Sun Valley Flower Farm, The Orchid People, Unfurled Design

We’ve been planning and designing the 2018 Floral Fashion Collection for months — and it will be unveiled this week in the June issue of Florists’ Review!

For the third year in a row, American Flowers Week has commissioned fashion-inspired looks featuring local, seasonal and domestic florals.

For 2018, we have five fashion looks to unveil. It is amazing what the talented flower farmers and floral designers have conjured up this year and I’m so excited to be able to announce the participants and give you a preview of their creativity here.

Grab your June 2018 copy of Florists’ Review to read more and see a full 12-page spread about American Flowers Week’s floral fashions. I’ll be sharing individual stories and more beautiful photos throughout June, leading up to the June 28-July 4 #americanflowersweek Celebration.

Thank you to everyone who donated flowers, design time, photography and styling. The impressive dream team behind these looks are not only talented but passionate about promoting American-grown flowers through their creativity!

Let’s celebrate the five floral fashion narratives created for 2018 American Flowers Week. I can’t tell you how much it means to this cause — to elevate the public’s awareness and to engage the industry to CARE about domestic floral agriculture and sustainable, mindful floral design.

FIELD TO FASHION
In its fourth year, American Flowers Week celebrates U.S.-grown (and foraged) botanicals with five fresh, inspiring and hand-crafted couture looks. 

PEONY LOOK

Floral Palette: Peony flowers and petals, Scenic Place Peonies (Homer, Alaska) @scenicplacepeonies

Designer: Kelly Shore, Petals by the Shore @petalsbytheshore

Design assistance: Lisa Thorne, Thorne & Thistle @thorneandthistle

Model: Ashley Johnson, @ah.schlee

Hair/Makeup: Elizabeth Morphis, Scenic Place Peonies

Apparel: Donated by Grunden’s @grundens

Photography: Joshua and Brittney Veldstra joshuaveldstra.com, @joshuaveldstra

Location: Homer Small Boat Harbor, Homer, Alaska

TROPICAL LOOK

Floral Palette: Tropical and temperate flowers, foliage and botanicals grown on Hawaii’s Big Island, including lantern ilima (Abutilon), Spanish moss, calathea leaves, fiddlehead ferns, ti leaves, cymbidium orchids, statice, snapdragons, dianthus, anthuriums, epidendrum orchids, hanging fuzzy heliconia, bottlebrush, fishtail palm, blue jade vine, crown flower, kalanchoe, foxtail agave, camellia, ginger, bougainvillea, bromeliad, pincushion protea and croton.

Designers: Alison Grace Higgins (owner) and Nicole Cordier (manager), Grace Flowers Hawaii (Honokaa, Hawaii) @graceflowershawaii

Florals supplied by: J&D Farms (Kamuela), Pacific Floral Exchange (Hilo), Hawaiian Isle Flowers (Volcano), The Orchid People (Kamuela), ESP Nurseries (Kamuela) and High Country Farms (Pa’auilo Mauka).

Models: Na’iwi Young of Olowalu Entertainment and Kayla Maluhia Kawai @radshack_hawaii

Hair/Makeup: Gracia Malendres, Grace Makeup Artistry

Photography: Meghan Spelman, Bikini Birdie Photography @bikinibirdie

Location: Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

WOODLAND LOOK

Floral Palette: Pacific Northwest-foraged moss, lichen and pine cones

Production support: Seattle Wholesale Growers Market (Seattle, Wash.)

Designer: Carly Jenkins, Killing Frost Farm (Missoula, Montana) @killingfrostfarm

Assistant: Katherine Sherba, Mighty Fine Farm (Missoula, Montana)

Model: Berkeley Danysh, TCM Models and Talent

Hair/Makeup:
Carly Jenkins

Photography:
Alex Brooks, Alex Brooks @alex_brks

Location:
Old Goat Farm, Orting, Washington

DAHLIA LOOK

Floral Palette: 350 dahlias, Aztec Dahlias (Petaluma, Calif.) @aztec_dahlias; Herbs and succulents, Full Bloom Farm (Sebastopol, Calif.) @fullbloomflowerfarm 

Designer: Hedda Brorstrom, Full Bloom Farm

Harvesting/Production Assistance: MaryAnn Nardo, 7 Petals Floral Design @7petalsdesign; Sarah Reyes, Unfurled Design @unfurleddesign; Dan’yell Powell @danyellily

Model/Hair/Makeup: Sophia Lane (with assistance from Amanda Lane), @sophiajlane

Photography: Becca Henry, Becca Henry Photography

Location: Aztec Dahlias, Petaluma, California

IRIS LOOK

Floral Palette: 1,500 ‘Hong Kong’ irises, Sun Valley Flower Farm (Arcata, Calif.) @sunvalleyfloralfarms

Designer: Faye Zierer Krause, Flora Organica Designs @fayekrause

Model: Morgan Mireles

Hair and Makeup: Angela Cheung, Onxy-Private Holistic Studio, @onyxarcata

Photography: Leon Villagomez, Leon Villagomez Photographer @leonvillagomez

Location: Flora Organica Designs, Arcata, California

Download Social Media Graphics of all these Looks and show your support for American Flowers Week.

Behind the Scenes as we ready for American Flowers Week 2018

21 Saturday Oct 2017

Posted by Debra Prinzing in American Flowers Week 2018, Floral Design, News & Events

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

7 Petals Floral Design, Amanda Dumouchelle, Amy Kunkel-Patterson, Anna Peters, Ashley Johnson, Aztec Dahlias, Becca Henry, Beth Van Sandt, Brittney Veldstra, Elizabeth Morphis, Full Bloom Flower Farm, Gather Design Co., Grunden's, Hedda Brorstrom, Imagine Three Beauty Studio, Joshua Veldstra, Kate Rowe, Kelly Shore, Kelly Uhlig, Kurt Weichhand, Lisa Thorne, Monique Montri, Omar Durah, Passionflower Events, Petals by the Shore, Scenic Place Peonies, Sonshine Farm, Sophia Lane, Susan McLeary, Thorne & Thistle, Yessie Libby

“In Process” — Kelly Shore (left), preps her Alaska Peony model Ashley Johnson; Hedda Brorstrom (right) attends to a few details for the dahlia dress worn by model Sophia Lane

American Flowers Week began in 2015, and it has grown significantly in three short years to involve participation across all channels of domestic flowers — from seeds to bouquets to beautiful floral fashions.

Your involvement helped us generate more than 5 million impressions on social media (Instagram and Twitter) during this year’s campaign, a major leap from the 400,000 measured in 2015 and 1.2 million measured in 2016.

We’re making a difference in the relationship people have with their flowers — and that’s inspiring!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update here, but not because I have forgotten about American Flowers Week! The fact is, we’ve been hard at work developing next year’s amazing promotions, partnerships and platforms to elevate and expand this one-week celebration of domestic botanicals and you can be sure that plans are well underway for an incredible American Flowers Week 2018.

I’m excited to share some of the latest news with you!

Susan McLeary of Passionflower Events created our red-white-and-blue floral ‘fro for 2016, with graphic design from Jenny Diaz

As you know, for 2016, we commissioned Susan McLeary of Passionflower Events to design a beautiful red-white-and-blue floral ‘fro using all American-grown blooms.

With talents of photographer Amanda DuMouchelle, makeup artist Imagine Three Beauty Studio and our beautiful model Monique Montri, the iconic image is still posted and shared today.

That led to the ambitious campaign to produce an extensive lineup of floral fashions showcasing the best local, seasonal and domestic flowers, unveiled earlier this year.

The floral creativity we witnessed by Slow Flowers members — flower farmers and floral designers — was mind-blowing and we’ve yet to share all of the images captured by our photographers.

You can read about our first piece of 2017, a sunflower gown designed by Amy Kunkel-Patterson of Gather Design Co., modeled by stylish flower farmer Kelly Uhlig of Sonshine Farm and captured on film by Anna Peters, with hair and makeup by Yessie Libby.

A quartet of four other amazing floral fashions followed, and I’ve been remiss about posting those — so look for the back-story of our rose tutu, floral cape, woodland menswear vest and peony Geisha in the coming weeks. Those were created by Teresa Sabankaya of Bonny Doon Garden Co., Tara Folker of Splints & Daisies, Riz Reyes of RHR Horticulture and Arthur Williams of Babylon Floral Design.

From left: Ashley & Kelly during our prep time; Kelly’s tapestry of Scenic Place peony blooms; and floating peonies, on location at the Homer Marina

But for now, let’s jump ahead to 2018 . . . and our PEONY Look!

Slow Flowers‘ designers and flower farmers have already stepped up to help us capture two of next year’s five floral looks on film and while we can’t reveal the completed designs yet, we can credit the talented teams and give you a little behind-the-scenes taste of what to expect when promotions launch for American Flowers Week 2018.

In July, with Kelly Shore of Petals by the Shore and Beth Van Sandt & Kurt Weichhand of Scenic Place Peonies, we visually documented a quintessential moment for Alaska-grown peonies!

Kelly and Beth partnered on numerous creative endeavors during a single week at the end of July 2017 . . . including the Field to Vase Dinner and a romantic styled shoot that Kelly designed, which was photographed in Scenic Place’s peony fields and published in the October issue of Florists’ Review (in the Slow Flowers Journal section).

But . . . thanks to Beth’s brainstorm and Kelly’s willingness to jump in and say “yes,” we also produced a thoroughly unique peony experience on the docks and shoreline of the fishing marina in Homer, Alaska. Beth wanted our American Flowers Week “look” to blend Homer’s two economic engines — commercial fishing and peony farming.
We were lucky for so many reasons, including:

  • Joshua and Brittney Veldstra of Homer-based Joshua Veldstra Photography signed on to document the story with their amazing talents.
  • The folks at Grunden’s donated a pair of white bib overalls and “Deck Boss” boots, the feminine version of the attire you’ll see worn by commercial fishing pro’s.
  • Our beautiful model jumped right in and said “yes” to everything we asked of her. Ashley Johnson, flower-farmer-in-training, spent this past summer as a WOOFER (that’s World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) at Scenic Place. We were super lucky that she agreed to be our model!
  • There were other helpers who made this shoot such a success: Lisa Thorne of Thorne & Thistle, a Slow Flowers member who traveled to Homer to volunteer for all of the Field to Vase activities; and Elizabeth Morphis, a Scenic Place Peonies team member who assisted with hair, makeup and design!

Enjoy a sneak peek of our visual story above — you’ve never before seen Alaska-grown peonies expressed in such a creative way that underscores the importance of season, place and beauty! The entire reveal will occur during American Flowers Week, June 28th through July 4th! I thank everyone who made this happen — they are my heroes!

From left: designer Heddah Brorstrom attaches more than 350 local dahlias to the “skirt”; a lovely detail of the floral artistry expressed in this project; and real-time photography.

Next up: Dreaming of DAHLIAS!

I’ve been wishing for a dahlia “look” for American Flowers Week for many reasons, the most obvious of which is that the renaissance of field-grown dahlias has been a game-changer for Slow Flowers members — farmers and designers alike. No other flower is so precious and coveted in summer and early autumn. No other flower is dependent on local sourcing, a boon for those who grow and design with them.

I asked Slow Flowers member Kate Rowe, co-owner with Omar Duran of Aztec Dahlias in Petaluma, California, if she would sponsor a photo shoot depicting dahlias in a floral fashion — and she said YES!

We agreed together that Hedda Brorstrom, a farmer-florist who owns Full Bloom Farm in nearby Sebastopol, California, would be THE person to design the look.

Yet the larger backdrop for our October 16th photo shoot, captured by Becca Henry at Aztec Dahlias’ farm, was less than ideal.

Everyone in Sonoma County has been coping with the onslaught of horrendous wildfires — in fact, every person involved in this photo shoot has a connection with a loved one who has lost everything to the fires. Working conditions for flower farmers in Sonoma County have been highly risky due to the poor air quality and intense heat. We weren’t really sure that the schedule would work out due to all these external (negative) conditions.

But . . . the dahlia dream team pulled it off — and I’m so impressed with their talents! The entire look, worn so elegantly by model Sophia Lane, was achieved due to the “village” of talents. THANK YOU to everyone involved!

Hedda Brorstrom – Floral Designer
Full Bloom Flower @fullbloomflowerfarm 
Becca Henry – Photographer
Becca Henry Photography @becca.henry.photography
MaryAnn Nardo – Harvesting / Floral Design Assist
7 Petals Floral Design @7petalsdesign
Sophia Lane – Model
@sophiajlane
– Amanda Lane, Mom
Dan’yell Powell – Harvest / Assist
@danyellily
Sarah Reyes – Assist
Unfurled Design @unfurleddesign
Kate Rowe – Dahlias
Aztec Dahlias @aztec_dahlias

What’s Next?

Our anticipation for American Flowers Week 2018 continues and I’m eager to involve more Slow Flowers members in the campaign! The Peony and Dahlia fashions will be published in the Slow Flowers Journal section of Florists’ Review magazine in our June 2018 issue — that’s the big “reveal” of all this gorgeous American-grown creativity! And stay tuned for more behind-the-scenes news to come . . .

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