An Afternoon Walk – Garden Come to Gown

NEW YORK-Back in the city, reluctantly, on this beautiful Columbus Day, walking home from Midtown. Did you know Columbus came to the New World four times and never realized he was not in the Far East? And that that’s why our American Indians are called Indians – because he thought they were Indian Indians? This has nothing to do with today’s post; I just thought it was interesting…Always interesting – and beautiful – are the windows of fabled Park Avenue floral designers Renny & Reed.

Renny & Reed dress-2
At Renny & Reed (Park Avenue and 59th Street), dried grasses are laced in a corset and hydrangeas make a pretty pouf of skirt - that never needs ironing.

I go out of my way to pass by, and it’s always worth it.

Renny & Reed dress
Would you dare to wind dried grasses and flowers around a body-skimming frock? You could you know.

It is a pleasure amid this concrete jungle to be reminded of how nature and gardens inspire in so many ways and on so many levels. Hort couture anyone?

Not to rush the season, but next spring’s Horticulture Society of New York dinner dance will celebrate this very idea of “hort couture,” and it will be exciting to see what the designers come up with. But for now, let’s just enjoy the fall fashions – and flowers. Oh, and full disclosure: I’m on the board of the Hort, but I have no connection to Renny & Reed except as an admirer.