What to Pack for the British Countryside

Although I’m American, I’ve always had a penchant for the British countryside. Maybe it was because I grew up re-blogging photos of Kate Moss on Tumblr at Glastonbury. (That photo of the model in mud-soaked Wellington boots altered my brain chemistry.) Or, perhaps, it’s my slight obsession with the characters on The Crown (and, later, Saltburn) and their sprawling estates with rolling hills and wildly grown fields. So when I got the invitation to celebrate the start of the summer with Kurt Geiger and Tattie Rose Studio at Babington House, a stone’s throw away from Bath, I was completely sold.

In celebration of the wildy unkempt yet chic nature of the countryside and nostalgic summer memories in gardens, London-based accessories label Kurt Geiger and creative floral design house Tattie Rose Studio teamed up to create their take on a floral print. Enter Floral Couture, a limited-edition, hand-drawn collaboration that feels more like a piece of art than a printed handbag. Featuring bags, shoes, garden accessories, knitwear, and even dog accessories in a rainbow oil pastel arrangement, Kurt Geiger’s floral-inspired capsule might look like it was the product of heavy deliberation and hundreds of hours. In reality, though, Creative Director Rebecca Farrar-Hockley and florist Tattie Isles made the decision to work together in a matter of weeks.

After stumbling upon Isles’s impressive floral design portfolio on Instagram (and falling in love with her handpainted Christmas cards), Farrar-Hockley approached Isles to create a print that felt quintessentially British and could reflect their love of the outdoors and the charming countryside. After an initial round of sketches with an incredibly light creative brief, Isles had carte blanche to create a rainbow-colored hand-drawn print that would feel fresh, modern, and, most of all, uniquely her. “We decided to be adventurous about it. And you wanted something that felt like a painting rather than a computerized upgrade, which is how a lot of prints nowadays happen,” Isles explains, nodding to the overwhelming amount of sameness that exists in stories come spring and summer. Instead of relying on digital means, a hand-drawn print meant that Isles and Farrar-Hockley could really get into the nitty-gritty of the design, constantly tweaking until they had a perfect final print that felt more akin to a painting than something you’d find on a T-shirt.