A Woman to Know: Constance Spry
Open your minds to every form of beauty. — Constance Spry
(image via The Surprising Life of Constance Spry)
Constance invented the "single item in a vase" kind of flower arranging — seriously. *And* she popularized the wedding bouquet. In fact, most floral traditions today can be traced back to this early twentieth century artist, a former housewife who achieved notoriety for her war-era victory garden consulting. After writing several home ec books, Constance was invited to design the floral bouquets at multiple royal weddings and coronations and events. From there, she became famous for her avante-garde creations: fruits and vegetables displayed alongside burnt leaves, or sprigs of wild things mixed with cultivated roses and trellising vines.
In her private life, Constance was just as unconventional as her arrangements: she took up with several lesbian artists (while still married!) and bucked gender norms of the time. She set the template for domestic celebrity, writing multiple books and later opening an entire school of floral arranging. Soon high society women were educating themselves in botanical artistry as a marker of gentility, and designers today cite her work as inspiration for everything from interior design to pattern making. She had such beautiful advice for her students, still remembered by designers today: "Do what you please, follow your star, be original if you want to be and don't if you don't want to be. Just be natural and gay and lighthearted and pretty and simple and overflowing and general and baroque, and learn and learn and learn."
Add to your library list:
The Surprising Life of Constance Spry (Sue Shephard)
The Constance Spry Handbook of Floristry (Harold Piercy)
Read more:
Flowering Inferno (T Magazine)
Constance Spry Design (The Design Museum)
New Constance Spry play reveals her life wasn't rosy (The Daily Mail)
How a floral arrangement caused fear and loathing (The Guardian)
Her arrangements adorned the coronation (The Sunday Times)
Past and Present: Constance Spry + Floral DIY (Design Sponge)
Museum salutes queen of floral art (The Guardian)
Surprising arrangements: the influence of Constance Spry (The Financial Times)
Society florist Constance Spry remembered in Mayfair (The Telegraph)
A rose among thorns (The Guardian)
The story of royal wedding flowers (The Telegraph)
** Send your own recommendations for women to know! Reply to this newsletter with your lady and she could be featured in an upcoming edition. You can browse the archive here. **