Flora is a fashion designer who trained at the Royal College of Art in 1995. She now runs fashion accessory label House of Flora.
Flora (born 1971) is the head designer of fashion label House of Flora. Inspired by Claude Montana, Pierre Cardin and Andre Courreges, McLean undertook MA in Fashion Womenswear at the Royal College of Art in 1995, prior to establishing the House of Flora label.
McLean’s legendary PVC beret (worn by Beyonce) was exhibited in The Victoria and Albert Museum as part of the Anthology of Hats exhibition 2009. McLean won the Jerwood contemporary makers Prize in 2010. She exhibits in a luxury trade fair Premiere Classe in Paris twice a year.
She is currently the new tutor in Footwear, Fashion Accessories and Millinery at The Royal College of Art, as well as being a technical surgeon and lecturer at the Architectural Association in London.
Key details
School, Centre or Area
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More information
Practice
House of Flora specialises in avant-garde headwear for the catwalk, fashion campaigns and collectors. Working with couture houses and ready to wear, including Givenchy couture, Bill Blass and Diane Von Furstenberg, Flora is often chosen as a collaborator for her innovative ideas and techniques. The ongoing collaboration with Neil Moodie hairstylist ‘Iconic Heads’ is now in its eighth year. McLean designed visors for the Jamaican Team/Puma for the 2012 Olympics as well as taking part in Hatwalk, a hat tour of statues in central London. McLean made a hat for Wellington in Hyde Park corner. Materials often inspire the headwear; PVC, Perspex, felt, leather, wood veneer and nylon. Influenced by strong geometry and architecture as her grandfather and brother are both architects, McLean’s ideas also reference historical figures as well as concepts in modern art. House of Flora has now expanded to include a commercial range of statement fashion jewellery and eyewear pieces. Flora uses fashion film to accompany the collection and shows these at fashion week in London and Paris
The unique witty styles have won the brand a loyal following in the fashion world, across Europe and Asia, namely in the new markets of Hong Kong and Korea. McLean continues to push the boundaries for the future of accessory design with her enthusiasm for new technology and unique vision of the world. House of Flora is widely known in leading fashion press and the pieces are now exported to cool stores and famous galleries as well as to private collectors, worldwide.
Publications, exhibitions, other outcomes
Selected Recent Conferences & Exhibitions:
McLean delivered the paper: 'SYNTHETIC AESTHETIC' (September 2015) at the 'Provocative Plastics' conference, Museum of Design in Plastics (MoDiP), Arts University Bournemouth. She has been invited to deliver this lecture at the Science Museum London in December 2015.
The above paper led to RCA event 'Plastic Days' (November 2015), incorporating ten lecture on plastic and four workshops for Fashion and Textiles students.
Participated in the Fabric in the City exhibition (June 2015), The Cass Bank Gallery, London Metropolitan University: the exhibition celebrated the lives and heritage of the Huguenot weavers.
