Beautiful Blooms.....Paper Sculpture

photo by Bruce Weber ~ styling by Camilla Nickerson

I ran across this exuberant and gorgeous display of paper flowers while looking at the May 2010 online issue of W magazine. Oh my.......what have we here? We have the work of New York artist Eloise Corr Danch and as you will see she has an extraordinary ability to fashion flowers into a visual feast of colour. Makes me want to sharpen up my paper cutting skills.

This may be old hat to New York dwellers who would have seen this fashionable display of paper flowers in the windows of Macy's New York flagship store at Herald Square last spring, but then again maybe not (this could never get old hat) and this exquisite head dress has inspired me in answering my own floral question this season.......what colour of real flowers to plant over the next few weeks? All of them, every single colour I can find. 

The windows for the Macy's 2009 Flower Show featured more than 2,500 handmade paper flowers painstakingly fashioned into swirling garlands and 20 ornate head dresses in all 23 windows. A daytime view.

I would have loved to walk the 23 windows and study this swirling mass of intricate flowers of every colour and shape in this nightime view. What I would love to know......where did all the flowers go when the installation was finished? Wouldn't they make for the most fabulous of gift embellishments? You can visit the website of Eloise Corr Danch and see more of her incredible portfolio and her list of corporate clients such as Antropologie, the Canadian Joe Fresh, Macys, Sony Group Entertainment, RUFFIAN, Saks Fifth Avenue,  Leah C Couture Millinery and many others. Eloise studied fashion illustration in France at The Paris American Academy under Chanel illustrator Davids Rees. This spring she is collaborating with the British decor company Farrow & Ball to create sculptural flowers using their new wallpaper collection ~ The Chelsea.

Top photo photographed by Bruce Weber-styled by Camilla Wickerson/remaining David Zuckerman photos from Eloise Corr Danch website.

My Gorgeous File ~ every Monday

Roger Vivier ~ Haute Couture 2009

Dior Haute Couture

I keep a blog photo file simply called Gorgeous. It's full of all things I find gorgeous, girly-girl, pretty, glamorous, inspiring, and in their fanciful manner they often lift my spirits on Monday when I open my files for the upcoming week. So I've decided to gather these together in a random fashion every Monday to share their sheer beauty in the hopes they will do the same for you. We all need a little of that! I've had my eye on this little Dior Haute Couture number for many months, it was one of the first fashion photos I posted on my blog sidebar a few months back. I simply think it is one of the loveliest creations I have ever seen. So does everyone else, the frothy creation has practically become iconic for a number of reasons. You must pick up the latest issue of Vanity Fair and see the photo spread with actress Emily Blunt (of Devil Wears Prada fame) wearing all manner of haute couture. Not only does the photography by Michael Roberts take your breath away in all it's feminine glory, the article written by A.A. Gill makes a valid larger-picture point to the place of couture in these dismal times. He also answers a fashionable question.....Why do men's and women's buttons do up differently?

Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci . Lace Fan by Defrise ~ Paris

This photo didn't make the Vanity Fair issue but it is on their website. Note the exquisite court-like shoes by Roger Vivier with the fanciful pink bird detail shown in glorious detail above. You must go to the Roger Vivier website {click here} the interactive website is worth a visit. This link will bring you directly to the Haute Couture section where you can watch how the shoe-and-purse illustrations of creative director Bruno Frisoni turn into finished product. Just click on any of the illustrations. Then visit another visual treat on the same site.... the Ines Little Diaries written by Ines de la Fressange and follow her video shopping diary. The former- model-then-turned muse to Karl Lagerfield at Chanel is now the brand ambassador to Roger Vivier and takes you along as she explores hidden shop gems located on Paris streets a bit off the beaten track. The direct link didn't work so just watch the right corner of this interactive site on the main page to see a page corner flip over and then click to get to her section.

Emily Blunt reclines in suggestive style wearing a Christian Lacroix frock (saying dress just seems so inadequate in this case) on a settee that captured my attention. Note the silk flowers and you are going to see a theme here that I can't help but notice going in more than a few stylish directions. I love it when that happens.

Ingrid at Fashion Is My Muse has been blogging about the historical use of lace. She must love this delicate Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci. I have a feeling we're going to see more lace, floral, and petals......maybe ribbon?


When I saw the satin ribbon, the rose quartz , the delicate lace-like creation from jewelry designer Ranjana Khan....I knew I was going to have to borrow this incredible necklace photo from Judith over at the blog Paris Atelier to sit amongst all these lovelies. I don't think she will mind, she shares gorgeous so well.

It isn't just the couture that makes this photo shoot so incredibly perfect. The talented Vanity Fair Senior Style Editor Jessica Diehl deserves a loud but ladylike round of applause for locating the perfect backdrop located in Le Raincy outside of Paris, but putting those chairs in a random fashion...... a stroke of styling brilliance.


Do you see a connection? Exquisite paper flowers by paper artist Jo Lynn Alcorn adorned this staircase setting by designer Amy Lau in this year's Kip's Bay Showhouse in New York. She worked with designer Amy Lau and Maya Romanoff Wallpapers to create this floral application that has everyone going crazy at this year's designer showhouse. The showhouse is open until May 13th.

Though based in New York, paper artist Jo Lynn Alcorn does a great deal of work in Japan where they have a cultural affinity for her paper creations. Visit her website {click here} to see more of her incredible art.

Though she works in vibrant colour as well (see her green flowers for the Harper's Bazaar-Japan cover in her portfolio) I love her white or tone-on-tone renditions, here's a daisy creation backdrop she did for a Marc Jacobs ad campaign.

I saw this photo on the blog French Blue today {click here to read more}. She has paper art on her radar (and her beautiful blog banner) so her blog is always full of this gorgeous craft. Paper artist and teacher Jeffery Rudell did these fanciful wigs in handmade French paper for the Tiffany window "Queen for a Day" displays in New York. I'll see if I can find out more about his "papercut" talent.

"Couture is a promise to the future from the past: There will be entrances and orchestras again, carriages and candelabra again, parties and seasons again. Throughout the history of civilization, doom, doldrums, depression, and disaster have descended to paint the town gray. But they will also recede, leaving little but a shudder. What is left, what abides, is beauty.

A.A. Gill - Vanity Fair ~ May 2009