Meet Tattie Rose, the creative force behind Lulu’s giant rose baskets, on display at Blenheim Palace
The Rose Basket was one of Lulu’s first ever creations, and certainly the one that really propelled her onto the global fashion stage back in the early nineties. It’s the bag that set the tone for the brand – highly creative, playful and tongue, firmly placed in cheek.
The original Rose Basket now resides in London’s V&A museum but this inspiring piece has always been front of mind, with flowers being a huge theme through the decades, and recent re-imaginings of this iconic piece.
It makes sense then that for the Icons of British Fashion exhibition at Blenheim Palace the Rose Basket would play a big role. And big is right! Lulu enlisted the help of Tattie Rose, to help her create giant Roses especially for the exhibition.
Tattie Rose Studio is made up of a small and highly skilled team of makers, florists, welders, botanists, organisers and artists who, together with founder Tattie Isles and her husband Fred, describe themselves as a ‘wonderful botanical circus’.
The London and Dorset based studio creates fantastical flower designs and sets for creative projects and occasions across the world. Always with incredible of attention to detail, a passion for design, and a spirit of fun and bohemia. It’s the perfect creative partnership for Lulu!
Lulu asked us to make these massive silk flowers based on a the beautiful Living Rose Basket created last year at Chelsea Flower Show”, says Tattie. “She challenged us with making giant roses to fill these enormous baskets.”
A wonderful man called Woody Fox made the basket but one challenge, says Tattie, was combining their flowers with the basket itself. “The original bag has a wooden lid on it. We were going to drill holes to thread our stems through but we ended up cutting a large section out so we can thread them into the base instead.”
Together with Lulu, Tattie designed the flowers based on the original Living Basket. The flowers were constructed using large wireframes, which were covered in fabric and then hand painted to give them a more realistic feel. The final part of the puzzle was to try to introduce movement to these sculptural forms. “Being fabric rather than paper makes them feel really organic and gives the ability to twist, change and curl them. You got this real living feeling.”
