Flower crowns are this summer’s glitter face paint – Beyoncé and Rihanna are on the front of September US and UK Vogues wearing them, so it is only a matter of time before you see them on ambitious festivalgoers. But how easy is it to get the look at home?
Rebel Rebel florists made Beyoncé’s creation. It took a full day, using peonies and roses, and more obscure blooms such as anthurium and achillea. “The instruction we had was for something that was regal but soft and feminine,” says founder Athena Duncan. I bought a couple of bouquets from the supermarket and had a go. This is what I learned.
You need the kit to make this work
Duncan recommends wire around your head, around each stem and through the head of the flower, to make them stand up for longer. I find the wire from the top of a reporter’s notebook works very well for the frame. I’m less dexterous than a florist, though, so putting wire around each flower is trickier. I end up cheating and weaving flowers into the headband bit. A couple of hairclips are handy to keep the frame in place, as is the odd bit of strategically placed Sellotape.
With colour, go full rainbow
Photographer Tyler Mitchell’s image of Beyoncé has a hazy light which means the colours of Duncan’s blooms look straight out of a Dutch flower painting, or at least a very well-filtered Instagram post. Most of us don’t have such experts on hand, but can take heart from the glorious colour of multiple flowers. I use ivory roses, yellow daisies and deep purple carnations. The result? Nature’s rainbow is now on my head.
It’s best to draft in some friends
While Duncan says it is best to build the crown when it’s not on your head, and put it on with the flowers already in place, this seems strictly for the professionals. It is easier to rope in some unsuspecting minions to stick flowers into your head and hope for the best. What you see here is not entirely my work – I was thankful for the help of the photographer, Graeme Robertson, who drew on his experience of doing the hair of his two daughters.
Hold still at all times
Even Beyoncé can’t stop gravity. The Vogue cover shows her sitting bolt upright and stock-still, a posture that I can relate to during my flower crown experiment. Even with the deportment of a ballerina, it’s fair to say this is a fashion statement for a sitting activity – a fancy dinner, say – rather than anything that requires walking a great distance, or indeed moving. Festivalgoers, you have been warned.
• This article was amended on 7 October 2022 to clarify that Beyoncé’s floral crown was created by a team at Rebel Rebel florists, rather than by Athena Duncan alone as an earlier version suggested.
