Constance Spry and The Fashion for Flowers

This summer the Garden Museum will be celebrating the doyenne of flowers, the 20^th century’s most influential floral decorator, Constance Spry. Guest curated by floral designer and writer Shane Connolly, this new exhibition will explore Spry’s exceptional life, achievements and legacy, with exclusive access to her archive at the RHS Lindley Library.

Spry’s popularity has seen a huge resurgence in recent years as a new generation of floral designers rediscover her ground-breaking approach to the art of flowers: seasonal, natural, yet unconfined by tradition and rules.

For this exhibition the Garden Museum has gained exclusive access to Spry’s personal archives, which were deposited at the RHS Lindley Library after her death and have not been displayed publicly since. The exhibition will feature 100 never before seen photographs, documents and personal items from these archives, a precious record of an extraordinary life. We couldn’t be more excited that The Garden Museum and its guest curator, the extremely talented Shane Connolly, chose to use Edward Bulmer Natural Paint throughout the exhibition space.

Constance Spry opened her first flower shop, Flower Decoration, in 1929. Her revolutionary approach to floristry garnered widespread interest in high society, while also democratising the form. Unconfined by traditional floristry training, Spry married classic flowers of choice with ‘unusual’ and uncelebrated plant material like kale and pussy willow, unconventional offerings from hedgerows and scoured Covent Garden flower market for statement flowers. Her influence can still be seen in floral design trends to this day.

Throughout her long successful career, Spry also opened a floristry school, a domestic science school, and published thirteen books. And for more than three decades, she provided inspirational flowers for society weddings, fashion shows, the Wedding of Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson and in 1953 stage managed the design of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Guest Curator Shane Connolly

Shane Connolly started his floral design business in 1989. Shane has always had an organic approach to his designs, and he is a passionate advocate of British grown, seasonal flowers.

Shane has decorated some the country’s most prestigious venues for an eclectic range of clients. In 2005, he was asked by HRH the Duchess of Cornwall to design her bouquet and all other flowers for her marriage to HRH Prince of Wales and the service of dedication in Windsor Castle. In recognition of this, he was awarded a Royal Warrant of Appointment to HRH The Prince of Wales in 2006. In 2011 Shane was appointed Artistic Director for the wedding of TRH’s The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. And was awarded a second Royal Warrant of Appointment, to HM The Queen in 2015.

We spoke to Shane about his process:

“In curating the show, I was lucky enough to speak with many people who actually knew Constance Spry, and people who had worked in her shop or trained at Winkfield Place, her home and school near Windsor, before her death in 1960. They all remembered a comfortable plainness, and the feeling of light, pale elegance in every Spry-inspired interior. Undoubtedly a breath of fresh air in a dreary post-world war Britain. The exhibition is divided into ‘rooms’ that reflect different aspects of Spry’s extraordinary career, so each has a palette based on these memories.”

Shane choose Eau de Nile for a room filled with images of Spry-designed weddings of the 1930s which he describes as “one of my favourite of all EB paint colours, making a perfect backdrop for black and white images of glamorous brides and grooms.” Shane explains how they set these images on trompe l’oeil grisaille panels, inspired by the magnificent ones designed by Martin Battersby for Duff and Lady Diana Cooper. Noting how “the background of Eau de Nile makes the grisaille really sing.”

A huge congratulations to The Garden Museum, Shane Connolly, Robin Lucas, Christopher Woodward and Emma House for such an inspiring show and we are so glad we could help fulfil your every paint need!

The show is on until the 26th of September so don’t miss out on the opportunity to see this marvellous creation, to books tickets click HERE. The Garden Museum is next door to Lambeth Palace, sitting on the bank of the Thames looking across to Parliament, just a ten minute walk from Vauxhall, Westminster and Lambeth North stations.

Don’t forget to also sign up to our Colour Club, where you will be the first to know about exclusive offers and competitions – with great thanks to the Garden Museum for allowing us to offer some free tickets to our Colour Club members for the Constance Spry Exhibition! The virtual doors are open, we think you’ll like it here…    SIGN UP HERE