GlamTribale Jewelry Captures Fall 2012 Botanica Erotica Trend

Fall 2012 Eroticism Embraces Flowers at Nina Ricci

Flowers, fauna and Mother Nature accompanied by model Kati Nescher star in Nina Ricci’s Fall/Winter 2012/13 campaign, lensed by Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin. Front and center are the new La Rue handbags made of alligator skin — a product objectionable to some AOC readers.

Nescher faces off against the contrasting botanical watercolor painting illustrated by artist Jo Ratcliffe.

Exotic Nature @ Florabotanica

The eroticism of nature makes any play for attention in Balenciaga’s new fragrance Florabotanica, due out in September.  Aimed at a younger audience than Balenciaga Paris, the scent was created by perfumers Oliver Polge and Jean-Christophe Hérault, who worked in collaboration with Balenciaga’s designer Nicolas Ghesquière.

Kristen Stewart is the face of Florabotanica, because she embodies the modernity of the scent with her unique sensibility and intelligence. The campaign is photographed by Steven Meisel.

Cleve West’s Brewin Dolphin Garden @ Chelsea Flower Show

Image by Martin PopeInnocence is deceiving writes The Financial Times about this year’s winner of top garden at the Chelsea Flower Show.

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Japan's Blue Rose 'Applause' Bows in US | NYC Low Line

Japanese rose growers have achieved the unattainable, and they’re not shy about proclaiming their brilliance and good fortune. The ‘blue rose’ (yes, it looks mauve or purple to us also) will be for sale in both the US and Canada this fall, writes Wired.

Named ‘Applause’, the rose has been genetically modified to synthesize delphinidin, a pigment that’s found in most blue flowers. Researchers at the Suntory laboratory have worked for 20 years on ‘Applause’ which was first released in Tokyo in 2009.

Because they have eluded the best of rose growers for centuries, blue roses have a near mythic quality that’s associated with unrequited love or a quest for the impossible. As is so often the case in life, the solution to breeding a spectacular blue rose was an unassuming, delphinidin-producing gene from a simple pansy. 

The pansy’s genetic pedigree became a true Cinderella story, when she hooked up with an Old Garden ‘Cadinal de Richelieu’ rose. After its Japan debut, ‘Applause’ sold for ten times the price of an ordinary rose.

Perk up girls; most of us won’t be able to afford the blue rose anyway.

NYC Low Line?

The Renderings for the Delancey Underground Park on the Lower East Side New York Magazine

Three urban ­entrepreneurs—James Ramsey, a satellite engineer turned architect; Dan Barasch, an executive at the technology think tank PopTech; and the pedigreed money manager R. Boykin Curry IV have a big idea.

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