Dear Shaded Viewers,
For Spring Summer 27, Stephen Jones has dedicated his collection to the multicultural landscape of Australasia, envisioned through the flowers of the Pacific that thrive together under one ecosystem. Following a particularly inspiring trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Victoria on a recent visit, Jones has produced a collection shrouded in the joy of existing collectively, while leaving space for individuality.
Greeted in the showroom, firstly with a warm dose of optimism and celebration, it quickly becomes clear that Flora Diaspora is less a collection about flowers than it is about the people and cultures that tend to them. The greenhouse becomes a symbol for community, with each hat representing its own distinct bloom within a much larger, flourishing garden.
There is an unmistakable sense of play throughout. A perspex tiara reimagines New Zealand’s silver fern with sparkling rhinestones, while a traditional Filipino Sakalot is entwined with delicate silk jasmine. An architectural straw visor takes the form of an Italian lily, its topaz stamens offering a flash of glamour. Elsewhere, Australia’s wattle becomes the extravagant Queen of the Desert, exploding in a cloud of yellow tulle blossoms. Standouts included a great pink peony made from hand dyed feathers, peppered with intricate, hand beaded ants, and a thermoformed lotus flower that appeared almost glasslike in its airy stature.
Importantly, Jones also turns his attention towards First Nations culture, honouring the Gungurru, or Eucalyptus Caesia, as a symbol of beauty and resilience. Its form is translated into an asymmetric laize beret, finished with frayed crin petals and sugar beads, giving the reference an appropriately tactile interpretation.
The Miss Jones and JonesBoy pieces extend the collection’s narrative into the garden itself, populated by gardeners, planters and ladies who lunch. Hessian sun hats decorated with seed packets sit alongside straw berets spilling with foxgloves, each one carrying the fantasy of a garden into everyday life.
So, as the warm rain descends upon London and nods to summer’s departure, we can rest easy in the knowledge that a garden of sorts will be ever blooming inside Stephen Jones’ world.
Later,
Olivia
