Constance Spry and the Fashion for Flowers

Elegant exhibition at the Garden Museum looking at the life and work of Constance Spry, the floral designer.

This show was very cleverly designed to tell and show a lot in a small space even if, at times, it felt a bit cramped in these Covid times. Good use was made of show style display cases and innovative ways of showing objects. I was pleased I had done a talk by the curator before I went as sometimes the storytelling was a bit confusing due to the information board placing,

The show covered the whole of her life from helping to set up mother and baby clinics in Ireland before the First World War, through running a day school until finally being discovered as a flower arranger in the late 1920s. She went on to become a fashionable designer doing a number of royal and society weddings and even doing the floral designs for the Coronation.

She was also a great business woman, having products designed and produced by manufacturers such as the Fulham Pottery and endorsing other items. She set up a ‘starting school’ for young ladies teaching skills such as flower arranging and decorating. She also wrote books and gave lecture tours.

Oh and along the line she had an affair with the female artist Gluck who she met when Gluck painted one of her flower arrangements and Spry had to go to her house to replenish it.

Closes 26 September 2021

Review

Guardian


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