wearing live plants

Wearing live plants as accessories is extremely fascinating to me.  I was first introduced to the concept from a couple of Ecouterre posts featuring a moss stole, succulents on shoes, breathable purses that can carry plants, and a variety of live jewelry.  Conceptually, it is strikingly beautiful and given my deep love of plants, I would jump at the chance of living out my inner forest nymph.  I recently went hiking in the redwood forests of Muir woods in California.  Heavy rains illuminated everything, the moss, clover, ferns, leaves.  Striking color contrasts of fungi and bark and moss certainly served as design inspirations, but to take them out of the natural habitat and wear them sparks certain questions.  Would they look good? Perhaps.  Could they survive practical day wear or is it only best for standing in one place with a cocktail? The succulent shoes are definitely for standing only.   Then I was thinking back to adornments of human history.  Have humans ever worn living plants in this capacity?  Plant material has been used, of course, but its almost always dead, save for a couple of picked flowers grazing the heads and bodies of women and men.  Wearing live plants as an artistic function is one thing, communicating the artist’s message in relatively static context.  For integration into the everyday lives of the masses, however, there needs to be a continual lifecycle of the living plant product, especially for the accessories that featuring tiny plants in tiny spaces.  Perhaps more knowledgeable plant people would disagree with me, but sometimes I feel bad if the tiny plant has no more room to grow.  Purchasing a living plant accessory and then planting it somewhere, like a community garden or public park when the consumer is done wearing it or the plant needs more space might appeal to the practicality of these accessories a bit more.  However, you also run into issues of local vegetation and habitats versus a foreign invader, possibly threatening the native eco-system.  I guess that would only encourage people to buy living accessories from local producers.  Anyway, wearing live plants is awesome and beautiful in theory.  Will it take off among the masses? Probably not, there are too many challenges.

Here are some photos from the Muir Woods to inspire one’s inner forest creature.