“After women, flowers are the most divine creations ”- this phrase belongs to Christian Dior, who adored gardening and beautiful gardens. Digging a reed pond, planting a pear tree or picking tulip bulbs – the designer felt as confident in gardening as he did in his atelier. It is known that as a child, Dior’s reference book was the catalog of seeds and plants of Vilmoren-Andrieu. Together with his family, he spent the summer in the family garden near the French town of Granville – today the Christian Dior Museum is located here. The designer’s favorite flower is considered to be lily of the valley: it became the main note in the Diorissimo fragrance, which Dior asked perfumer Edmond Roudnitska to create in the 1950s. Another curious fact: the silhouette of the new look, which the designer came up with, has the shape of an inverted corolla of a flower.
Gardening was also a major hobby for the American designer Oscar de la Renta. His gardens in Connecticut and the Dominican Republic are impressive green labyrinths, a sea of climbing roses, hydrangeas, ylang-ylang, orchids and – the most beloved by the designer – gardenias. Oscar de la Renta’s love for flowers went beyond the garden and was continued not only in his collections, but also in his attitude to life: “Every day must be appreciated,” said the designer. “Life is a little bit like a garden – you have to find time to plant the seeds for beautiful flowers to grow.”
“Flowers have a way of brightening up a grey day, or a flat mood, and I think that’s what’s most important in a garden –it needs to make you feel good!” says Victoria Beckham, adding that in her case, flowers can lighten a gloomy day and lift a spoiled mood. The designer copes with two gardens at once: the first is located in a London house, the second is in the family property in the Cotswolds. In each of them, Beckham adheres to three rules. Rule one – perfect grooming is optional, slight negligence will only benefit the garden. Rule two – you need to spend money on beautiful garden furniture. And third, if something does not turn out the way you planned, just change your attitude: for example, dig up and plant the flower again.
The Belgian designer admits that he spends almost all his free time in the garden of his country house in Ringenhof – but this does not mean, in his own words, that he is doing well. Comparing work in the studio and in the garden, Dries notes that in fashion you can control everything, but you cannot control the garden – you just have to obey him: “If it rains for a week and suddenly the sun comes out, you go home and jump on the lawn mower, even if it’s the same day you have an important fitting. It’s a little like having children.” The designer is always open to communication with other gardeners, and is also happy to use flowers in his collections: last October, for example, the designer invited a photographer to his garden to capture the fragile beauty of summer plants by the end of the season – in the fall-winter 2019 collection these the pictures were printed on silk blouses, dresses and raincoats.
The designer grew up in Sardinia – and returned here after twenty years of living, first in Rome, then in Paris. His mansion in Alghero includes an impressively beautiful garden – and is occupied by Marras himself, sometimes with his wife Patricia. It is known that the designer is not indifferent to succulents, so numerous cacti in the garden coexist with myrtle, laurel, rosemary, basil and “helichrysum italicum” (the amazing smell of the latter, according to the designer, is everywhere here, but it defies description). In the garden, the designer also spends evenings – with rustic food, a glass of wine and a view of the olive grove and the sea.
