BOTANICAL COUTURE 2023 DESIGN BY SARAH WAGSTAFF PHOTOGRAPHY BY CECILY GUBITOSI PHOTOGRAPHY
fLOWERS IN HIS HAIR
SARAH WAGSTAFF OF SUOT FARM AND FLOWERS
wanted to flip the script on who wears flowers and so she recruited her husband Keith Chaplin, their 8-year-old son
Huck Chaplin, and Steve Hayes, a willing friend, to model her creations for a American Flowers Week celebration. Dressing adult men and a younger boy with botanicals reminds Sarah of Peter Pan and Captain Hook. "Remember when Pan comes back to Neverland after he becomes a grownup and has forgotten how to be childlike? That's a story within us all," she says. "I wanted to remember and recognize the child within each of us, especially in men. Sarah wanted to attach flowers to every part of Steve's body -- his head, shoulders, neck, chest, back, arms, wrists, fingers, and legs. The botanical headpiece, a sunray shape, extends around neck and shoulders, covers his shirt, and fills the chest pocket. She used eyelash adhesive to glue flowers to his skin and wrapped his shoulders and arms with a 20-foot-floral boa fabricated from cedar boughs, tulips, peonies, and other cuts from her farm For her son Huck, whose interest in the project peaked when photographer Cecily Gubitosi encouraged him to take
DESIGN + CONCEPT: Sarah Wagstaff, SUOT Farm & Flowers, @suotfarm DESIGN ASSISTANCE: Olivia Yates O'Donnell, FloravoreNW, @floravorenw PHOTOGRAPHY: Cecily Gubitosi Photography, @cecilygubitosiphotography FLOWER SOURCES: SUOT Farm & Flowers, Tulips, peonies, frittilaria, ranunculus, poppies, daffodils, ferns, Spanish blue bells, bleeding heart, alliums, lilac, violas, hellebores, forget-me-nots, grasses, ivy, cedar, clematis, bones/shells MODELS: Steve Hayes, Keith Chaplin, Huck Chaplin VENUE: SUOT Farm & Flowers, Burlington, Washington, @suotfarm
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