Darkest Star
Pleasure Garden Exhibition
shot by Stephanie Sian Smith
Pleasure Garden Exhibition
shot by Stephanie Sian Smith
Darkest Star introduces the Pleasure Garden Exhibition launched at Coco de Mer.
This project is a vivid interpretation of the excitement and titillations that surrounded English Pleasure Gardens and female sexual liberation. It is a complemented by a range of fashion, art and lifestyle accessories.
Pleasure Gardens were a part of English society from 1661 to 1860. During their time, there was an extraordinary furor surrounding the arrival of the first orchid into England in 1818. Such became the obsession with the Orchid it was named Orchidelirium, by the Victorians. Affluent Victorians sent out search parties to discover and collect rare orchids. They would be exhibited as tatus symbols in the same way tiger's heads are displayed an walls as trophies. The inspiration for Darkest Star's orchid Sculpture collection comes directly from this.
During this period the pleasure garden was increasingly popular amongst high society and the lower classes alike. Weird and wonderful spiecies of the plant world were intoroduced to traditional gardens. The garden became a place of entertainment, fairgrounds & menageries were built. anything exotic ignited excitement and titillation.
Dark corners of the maze were explored during masquerade balls as a feeling of freedom was felt amongst the young. This was comlemented by female liberation and desire that was the core to the growing feminist movement.
The aim of the Pleasure Garden project is to capture the energy and essence of the moment.
Darkest Star Pleasure Garden exhibition
Photos - Stephanie Sian Smith
Styling - Alexis Knox
Models - Alice and Sam @ cosmic
Hair & Make up - Oscar Alexander Lundberg
Headdress - Feathersmith
This project is a vivid interpretation of the excitement and titillations that surrounded English Pleasure Gardens and female sexual liberation. It is a complemented by a range of fashion, art and lifestyle accessories.
Pleasure Gardens were a part of English society from 1661 to 1860. During their time, there was an extraordinary furor surrounding the arrival of the first orchid into England in 1818. Such became the obsession with the Orchid it was named Orchidelirium, by the Victorians. Affluent Victorians sent out search parties to discover and collect rare orchids. They would be exhibited as tatus symbols in the same way tiger's heads are displayed an walls as trophies. The inspiration for Darkest Star's orchid Sculpture collection comes directly from this.
During this period the pleasure garden was increasingly popular amongst high society and the lower classes alike. Weird and wonderful spiecies of the plant world were intoroduced to traditional gardens. The garden became a place of entertainment, fairgrounds & menageries were built. anything exotic ignited excitement and titillation.
Dark corners of the maze were explored during masquerade balls as a feeling of freedom was felt amongst the young. This was comlemented by female liberation and desire that was the core to the growing feminist movement.
The aim of the Pleasure Garden project is to capture the energy and essence of the moment.
Darkest Star Pleasure Garden exhibition
Photos - Stephanie Sian Smith
Styling - Alexis Knox
Models - Alice and Sam @ cosmic
Hair & Make up - Oscar Alexander Lundberg
Headdress - Feathersmith
