I F I H A D
A F L O W E R
If I Had a Flower was inspired by the quote from Alfred Tennyson: “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.” Telling the story of a flower surviving in a hard world that is not designed for it to survive, If I Had a Flower translates this story to one that is all too familiar to the human experience—how we as people can remain soft in a hard world that has not been kind to us. Worn by models of all shapes, sizes, ethnicities, abilities, this collection is meant to embody the struggles of evolution throughout the human experience. There is nothing stronger than someone who has remained soft in a world that has not always been kind to them.
STAGE 001: EMERGE
Emerge is the beginning of If I Had a Flower and depicts the flower at the start of its journey in life and in its purest form. As the flower breaks through the earth, it blooms and becomes whole, connecting with and becoming part of the world around it. Gentle and graceful, the flower remains underestimated in its power. It is in this sense that this flower exists in its own contradictions—it is delicate yet strong, small in size yet big in its beauty, and so short in life yet so lasting in its impact.
Emerge illuminates what it means to be innocently sensitive before one becomes part of the human narrative through lived experiences, learned behavior, and exposure to the larger world and the perspectives it brings. It is in this instance that we can see purity and beauty in our own lived experiences as humans; where flowers bloom, so does hope. And it is through this look that a person can juxtapose their own identity with that of a flower—as they must allow themselves to grow in all the places that they never thought they would.
Thus, Emerge emphasizes the ideas that both flowers and humans can remain soft in a world not designed for them to survive.
STAGE 002: EMBRACE
Embrace describes the flower’s acceptance of its solitude and of its fleeting presence. Adorned with dragonflies and bees, the flower views the world as one that is in constant motion. Meanwhile, it can only remain steadfast in its singular position, viewing the world as all but a stranger of paradise. However, it is also in this moment that the flower begins to question its own existence and whether or not its delicate qualities will lead to its being forgotten.
Thus, the flower begins to understand and accept that each of us is an ephemeral instance in the universe.
STAGE 003: ENCOUNTER
In Encounter, the flower recollects its meeting a human for the first time. Although their meeting was brief, the human and the flower took care of one another, nurturing each other and providing the connection both needed. Despite the flower’s ephemeral existence, it will always remember that moment it met its human for the first time. In fact, it was at this moment that both the human and the flower’s lives were changed forever.
It is in Encounter that one can understand that we as people can touch another person’s life as our lived experiences allow us to be more human versions of ourselves.
STAGE 004: ENGAGE
Engage depicts the flower as it begins its own journey of self-discovery within the context of the human experience. Increasingly curious since its encounter with a human, the flower meets the present world with innocence and kindness, honoring its desire for a more compassionate world while curiously exploring what this mysterious and ever-changing world holds. The flower has only known what it has experienced firsthand in its ephemeral life; however, through its interactions with the world around it, the flower begins to understand the differences between its own fate and the fate of a human.
It is in this sense that the flower deconstructs its own self and its own world view as it comes to understand that its future is full of indeterminacy. However, it is also at this moment that the flower begins to desire to live the life of a human—a life where its legacy can remain and even be celebrated even after its physical existence returns to the earth.
STAGE 005: EFFERVESCE
Effervesce represents the flower making a wish on what appears to be a dandelion, a humble plant that is also a symbol of hope, healing, and resilience around the world. The flower continues its journey to learn more about the human experience and to reunite with the human it once knew. When it meets this dandelion for which it was searching—some kind of Blue Fairy in this story—the flower makes a wish.
Instead of wishing to become a human, the flower simply wishes for its human—the one thing it has always loved—to return.
STAGE 006: ENDURE
Endure delineates the flower’s journey after it meets its Blue Fairy—the dandelion on whose whisps it wished for its human to return—and the hard world it has entered as it continues to search for its human.
In Endure, the flower experiences the loss of its human and the loss of the innocence it once knew as it begins to live through the human experience. The flower begins to understand how its own purity is shaped by both its natural state of existence and the ways in which its surroundings have nurtured it. The flower begins to recognize its own strength juxtaposed with its vulnerability—a wildflower does not crumble easily in the hands of a careless or ungrateful man. It prefers soft rains but is ready to withstand tumultuous thunder and lightning. In this sense, the flower begins to recognize its own human qualities.
Ultimately, the flower engages with the world with a feeling all too familiar to each of us—nostalgia of our past while continuing to survive in and endure a world without the one we love.
STAGE 007: EXALT
Exalt presents the flower’s own evolving perspective of the world, having always held its human in such high regard. After its journey of survival, the flower’s mindset shifts as it recognizes that it was never meant to be cut and tamed by a human and never needed the touch of a man to be beautiful; rather, it was meant to be loved from a distance and in that distance was how it could be something for every human to love.
Ultimately, Exalt demonstrates how the flower begins to recognize its own importance in its human’s life. Understanding itself as being part of nature—something absolute and enduring—the flower finally comes to accept its paradoxically ephemeral but meaningful existence. It is in this moment, when we as people can recognize our own impact on the lives of others while continuing to be kind in a world that has not always been kind to us.
STAGE 008: ENUNCIATE
Enunciate embodies the quote by Alfred Tennyson after which this collection is named: “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…I could walk through my garden forever.” Finally, the flower tells its human how much love it has for them and explains how it has finally embraced its identity as a reminder to the world of something pure that has survived the harshest storms and something that has refused to be tamed despite the every-changing world around it. The flower finally stops wishing to be a human and instead embraces its own evanescence as it returns to the earth.
It is in this look in which the flower reminds us all to remain soft while resilient; while the flower will not live forever, the moments it experienced will.
STAGE 009: ETHEREALIZE
Throughout If I Had a Flower, both the flower and the human have changed with each being influenced by the other in some way. Always wanting to be human, the flower finally finds peace in its existence as it remembers how much its journey allowed it to grow in the places it never thought it would. The flower embraces its abstraction and finally realizes it has always been perfect in its existence.
Etherealize concludes this story with one key message: we touch others’ lives as we go through our own journey— which ultimately allow us to be a more human version of ourselves as we see and better understand that the ephemeral existence of a flower is not too unfamiliar after all.
And while this story ends, another begins as this little flower continues to dream about reaching the stars.
