What: Everything’s coming up roses – and peonies and orchids and tulips and primroses. Yes, there’s a veritable seed catalogue’s worth of floral prints from designers this season. Still, things are not all quite so lovely in the garden this time around. Even the prettiest horticulture-inspired looks come with a touch of deadly nightshade – often planted on storm-dark backgrounds, with a whiff of sartorial subversion clinging to the hem.
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Where: Raf Simons set the mood of the season by staging his latest outing for Christian Dior in a “toxic” Alice in Wonderland garden festooned with a mix of both real and fake blooms. The collection mixed floral prints with text slogans, such as “Primrose Path”, and panels of black and clusters of jewels that looked like trails of brightly coloured lichen, to a pretty, albeit slightly unsettling, effect. Dries Van Noten took a more painterly approach – exquisite black dresses and satin kimono coats came decorated with wilting bunches of rare tulips worthy of a Flemish Old Master, and chiffon layers and loose-cut pyjama pants were scattered with delicate petal prints – while other prizewinning florals came from MiuMiu, where delicate sprigs were printed on retro summer coats, and Marc Jacobs, with foliage shapes on floor-length dresses.