Cherry Picking

Last year I stumbled across a fantastical image by fashion illustrator Helen Dryden, featuring a lady wearing a cherry hat and surrounded by butterflies. It was a serendipitous discovery, for I had recently purchased a delicious little burnt orange straw hat trimmed with cherries on eBay from Tarnished Past.

Cover illustration by Helen Dryden, British Vogue, July 1914I decided to make a picture in homage to Dryden, for I had also bought a cherry print vintage dress on Etsy (I had gone on a bit of a cherry rampage). Both hat and dress are 1940s, and the cherries on the hat are made of celluloid. They make a lovely clicking sound when I move my head, and although the glaze is cracked and they feel terribly fragile yet heavy, I adore the hat. The onyx bauble earrings match quite nicely. I couldn’t match all the colours exactly however. The red paper umbrella is one I purchased from Chinatown last Chinese New Year for a couple of dollars.

It was difficult trying to match the pose of the woman in the illustration, contorting my body without being able to look through the viewfinder. It was almost impossible to hold the umbrella at that angle, nor could I manage to defy gravity and tip the hat on end – and my neck certainly is not quite that long! It goes to show that sometimes illustration can do a little more than photography.