When I got married, I chose a dress by Simone Rocha. As a nonbinary person, I didn’t want anything conventionally feminine, but I did want a spectacular piece of clothing. The dress I picked was from the spring 2018 collection—Elizabethan in its shape, with leg-of-mutton sleeves and a huge skirt. It was gothically black, covered in sprays of tiny red roses. The exaggerated shape felt sculptural, romantically androgynous, and definitely un-girly. When I took it off to dance, two friends, both gay men, took turns slipping it on.
We got married at a University of Cambridge college, in a 15th-century hall decorated with Pre-Raphaelite exuberance in the same unusual black, red, and green palette as the dress. There were heraldic roses and other botanical motifs everywhere you looked, rising up the walls and swarming across the painted ceiling. It was like entering a fantastical Eden, at once traditional and anarchic.
Flowers are often coded as sweetly feminine, especially in fashion, but their historical use is far stranger and more subversive. Before I became a writer, I trained as an herbalist, falling deep under the spell of medieval herbs, with their bewitching floral associations. Flowers had once formed a kind of secret language, an arcane code that only an adept could read. Bouquets, paintings, even dresses could carry a hidden message, by way of the humble plants they contained.
This story is from the June/July 2024 edition of ELLE US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the June/July 2024 edition of ELLE US.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
On Pointe
Gabriela Hearst lends her design ingenuity to a Latin-powered production of Carmen that provides a fresh twist on the classic.
There's Something About Julie
Whether it's acne products or emergency contraception, Julie Schott is upending industries and erasing stigmawith her trademark sense of humor.
Hollywood Rising
Our annual mustknow list of emerging talents we'll all be watching (and obsessing over) this year.
Goodnight Meme
An internet It Girl logs offfor good.
SCENTS OF PLACE
For Fendi, a major move into fragrance meant looking inward.
SEEING INFRARED
The celeb-favorite treatment claims to grow your hair and youth-ify your skin. Could it outshine LED?
FOLLOW THE STARS
With the northern lights peaking this year, celestial-obsessed travelers can watch the skies in luxury.
MUSIC OF THE SPHERES
Van Cleef & Arpels's Perlée collection is a continuation of a long-standing house motif delicate, playful beading that dates back more than a century.
The Language of Flowers
Young designers are falling for the subversive power of a classic motif.
THE MAX FACTOR
Ferragamo creative director Maximilian Davis is carrying on the brand's Old Hollywood legacy with some of New Hollywood's biggest talents.