Dan Pearson Studio

I've just returned from the Port Eliot Festival, where I had been invited to judge the Flower Show and speak about my most recent book. The Festival takes place every July at the St. Germans' estate in Cornwall, seat of Earl St. Germans. Peregrine St. Germans was a hipster in the '60's and had hosted a rock festival at Port Eliot in the 1970's and '80's called the Elephant Fayre, of which I have since heard many strange and apochryphal tales. The new festival started in 2003 as the Port Eliot LitFest for a select invited guest list. It has since grown into a multimedia festival with an annual turnout of around 7000 people.

 

The Festival is art-directed by Michael Howells, production designer for film, theatre and fashion, and long time collborator of John Galliano on his couture shows. Consequently there is a fashion element to the festival which is unique. Michael had invited myself, milliner Stephen Jones, and designer and artist, Kitty Arden, to judge the Flower Show so, with an early start on Saturday morning, we began with the Scarecrow Competition.



The entries were many, various and hilarious.



Martin Scorsese (curator of the festival's evening open air cinema programme) featured alongside more eclectic combinations of clothing.

This entry was, understandably, called 'All fur coat and no knickers'...



...while this entry raised the most smiles. The winner, however, was voted into position on the basis that it was certainly the scariest scarecrow any of us had ever seen.



In the orangery the Flower Show itself was run with military precision by the local Women's Institute.  Judging was carried out in a serious and responsible manner.





There were ten themed categories in the show including arrangements inspired by Rogers & Hammerstein musicals, a minitaure arrangement for an actress' dressing table, one titled Greensleeves, and other categories for children's entries. Winners included this accomplished attempt to portray Sweeney Todd in flowers....





Madame Butterfly......



and The Sound of Music.



The children's entries were some of the very best, with the Portrait of a Pop Star eliciting some of the most imaginative entries, including this somewhat prescient portrait of Amy Winehouse and The King, on the morning that her death was announced.



In the Walled garden Barbara Hulanicki of Biba fame held fashion workshops in a tent with Anna Sui and Anita Pallenberg, from which little girls emerged looking like fairy princesses by way of Blade Runner.



While around the site the One Minute Disco would appear from time to time and draw a crowd of manic dancers for just one minute....



...or The Tea Ladies would roll into view with their trolley, urn and permanent lip-hanging fags.



As night fell on the surrounding Repton Landscape, we all settled down with a stiff Martini in front of the outdoor cinema screen with a viaduct by Isambard Kingdon Brunel as a backdrop to watch such classics as Strangers on a Train, The Leopard, The Red Shoes and All About Eve.