“Do not freak out”, I replied to photographer John when asked what my vision was for our Valentine’s campaign. Valentine’s Day marks three years since we collected the keys to lumière so I wanted to create a campaign which embodied the caption “For the Love of Light”.
I already had the perfect stage; a beautifully dressed room wrapped in Divine Savages wallpaper where I have spent a few magical nights in the last few years; creatively brainstorming on my phone or laptop. This love occasionally lead to me just collapsing in a pile on the floor by the sofa in the early hours of the morning…
While dissecting every inch of the scheme in my head during a drive along the coast one day, I had the radio on in the background and an audio clip of an authoritative woman’s voice immediately made my ears prick up: “Today’s woman uses flowers as an artist uses paint”, said Constance Spry’s eloquent voice in the 1950s. My heart skipped a beat. Anyone who knows me even a little bit, will know just how special all living things are to me; especially flowers. My home, my garden and my lighting gallery are never without a selection of beautifully scented blooms. I had not really read much about Constance Spry until that point, but I have since started devouring “The Surprising Life of Constance Spry”. Among many interesting facts, and her talent for sculptural flower arrangements, it also turns out Spry was a lover and muse of floral artist Gluck…
Until hearing that Constance Spry quote, I had decided against the use of the stereotypical Valentine’s rose in this particular image but after being introduced by Lucinda at The Bloom Foundry to the “Explorer” Rose, I quickly forgot that ridiculous idea. 90cm long roses with huge heads of soft velvety red petals…The perfect paint for our picture.
Our best-selling aged iron Cubist chandelier, a moonlit alabaster lamp, our blush crush Elsie lamp, a waterfall of cream silk, hand painted Muse tarot cards, red velvet roses, a meandering curved pink sofa, bold pops of colour against a room wrapped in sumptuous paper depicting animals on a drunken night out…Like a scene fallen straight out of a Lewis Caroll book right?!…Welcome to the world of lumière.
I was in the middle of reading the latest article by Kelly Wearstler about her inspiration behind her designs and it read “The details are the story”…Moments later John’s email popped up with the image proofs and there it was; The story made up of all the little details we had included. Like a little dot to dot picture linking all the chapters together.
Creating a scheme with so much attention to every little detail was truly a whole team effort. The small Cubist chandelier weighs (without the glass) around 7kg so there was not much opportunity for me to move once I was in position and the light was above my head. The team had to literally dress me like a chandelier; hanging everything on me as we do with the crystals on a chandelier. John would take a quick snap and I would stay in position while he showed me his camera screen to check for any necessary amendments.
The final piece is even more special than I had first anticipated thanks to each team player’s creative input and photographer John’s ability to listen to my brief and capture the vibe of the picture I had painted through words as well as the feel created on set by the team. It was so lovely for Stef and baby Alessia to join in too.
I had explained to John that I wanted to capture an impactful photo which would immediately conjure up strong feelings for its audience. “Think Sophie Dahl in the Opium ad”, I said.
On the day of the shoot, for the first time ever, there was no music playing in the background. There was a hushed mysterious vibe in the room with heavy energy of love, passion, desire and creative brainwork. A true cognitive adventure.
There were two favourite photos and it was tough deciding which photo to post today. We hope you love the image as much as we do and we look forward to sharing the other favourite at some point…
Happy Valentine’s Day and here’s to many more years of you and I lumière.
Melissa x
