Florists' vision comes to life at Fashion Week

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Florists' vision comes to life at Fashion Week

March 18, 2009

When you need élan and efficiency in equal measure, just ask a Teleflora florist. A case in point: Early last week, the PR department learned of an opportunity to create floral couture at opening weekend of LA Fashion Week, fashionweekla.com, which ends March 20.

Not having a closet full of callas to choose from, we tapped the mighty talents of our experts Carol Caggiano, who divides her time between the East and West coasts, LA-based Jen White, and Ann from Westwood Flower Garden westwoodflowergarden.com.

The challenge was to design three chic ensembles made entirely of flowers and leaves, bring that vision to life (securely!) on mannequins, and ensure that the blooms would look fresh for their entire stint on the red carpet, downtown at the Los Angeles Theater.

The "fabrics" were constructed from carnations, kermit mums, cymbidium and dendrobium orchids as well as assorted leaves and greens. After four long days, several buckets of discarded stems and a few bottles of floral glue, the models were ravishing and ready to dazzle the paparazzi!

There was, however, the slight snag of transporting these delicate beauties from Teleflora’s HQ in West LA to the theater on a traffic-snarled Friday afternoon. Too fragile to be piled up or popped into a cab, each mannequin was assigned an impromptu attendant (ie, Jen, plus three of the PR crew), carefully lifted into a box truck and protected from every bump, turn and stop along the way.

At the end of the trip, onlookers at Broadway and Sixth gathered to watch as the models were gingerly removed from the truck and carried into the theater, where Jen replaced a few fallen flowers and made sure each mannequin was perfectly pristine. Teleflora signs identified these unique displays and our version of floral high-style was good to go.

Check out these incredible works of art: