Cool Hunting

The Double Dutch show was surely the most sensual and evocative display of design talent seen at the London Design Festival last week. A small unused gallery in the Brompton Design District was overtaken by a banquet of flora and fauna, the stunning beauty of which stopped passers by in their tracks. This surprising and seductive guerilla exhibition was curated by Jane Withers and sponsored by the Flower Council of Holland. Two floral design duos were invited to create a show of "Appetites and Emotions".

The floral feast was created by gardener Lisa White and stylist Graham Hollick. They filled two ornate tables at the front of the space with exotic carnivorous plants, roses, orchids and fruit until it was almost overflowing with abundance. Props of golden cutlery and brightly coloured plates added to the general sense of insatiable opulence.

Dutch designers Niels van Eijk and Miriam van der Lubbe created five "Bouquets of Emotions" exhibited on plinths like sculptural artworks. Each bouquet cleverly evoked human feeling such as anger (pictured above), which used prickly thistles, spiky rose stems with their flowers cut off and aggressive looking warped branches. Who knew flowers could be so furious?