Visiting Designers Guild in London for a wonderful Bloggers Afternoon Tea

Designers-Guild-May-2014-Flowerona-10B

I can’t quite tell you how thrilled I was, last month, to be invited to a Bloggers Afternoon Tea at Designers Guild in London. I’m a huge fan of the brand and felt very privileged to have the opportunity of meeting the founder, Tricia Guild. As a fabulous bonus, flower grower and florist Juliet Glaves of Thoughtful Flowers was also at the event. For the RHS Chelsea Flower Show week, Juliet had a pop-up in-store installation at the King’s Road Homestore. And her beautiful floral designs were in abundance, inside and outside the shop…some of which you can see in the photos below.

Before Tricia’s talk, we were treated to tea and delicious floral-inspired cakes and biscuits by Nicola Holbrooke…you may remember that I featured Nicola on Flowerona recently.

Tricia told us about her love and passion for flowers, which started at the age of five, when she remembers the beautiful scent of wisteria. She explained how flowers have always been a huge source of inspiration in her work as a designer. And she talked us through how new fabrics are created, from the flowers initially being painted on the material to the dying and washing process that they go through, to give them a certain look.

Then it was Juliet’s turn. She had brought seasonal garden blooms, wild flowers and foliage from her flower farm in Shropshire and showed us how to make a bouquet inspired by the colour palette of Tricia’s fabrics. We were all wowed by her stunning flowers, which included peonies, lupins, alliums, poppies, tulips, cerinthe, snapdragons and wild forget-me-nots.

Then, we all made a posy to take home, before being given a guided tour of the store by Tricia. It was just so inspiring to be surrounded by so many vibrant colours!