The History of Flower Crowns and the Women Who Wore Them: From Frida Kahlo to Kate Moss Inline
Photo: DeAgostini/Getty Images1/21Cycle of the Months
May Day, an ancient celebration of spring, adapted from ancient civilizations in medieval times, remains an occasion on which floral crowns are worn.
Photo: Rembrandt via Getty Images2/21Flora
When Rembrandt painted Flora, “goddess of natural abundance,” she resembled his pregnant wife Saskia, and played on the association of spring and flowers with fertility and fecundity of the earth, and of women.
Photo: Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images3/21Portrait of Carlotta Grisi in Giselle
In this popular ballet, the heroine, Giselle, is crowned the Harvest Queen.
Photo: Getty Images4/21Ophelia
Shakespeare’s tragic heroine, Ophelia, is not only bedecked in blooms, but fluent in the language of flowers.
Photo: Everett Collection5/21Frida Kahlo
After her marriage to Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, who had once favored men’s clothes, incorporated elements of traditional Mexican dress into her wardrobe, topping full skirts and embroidered tops with braided, beribboned, and flower topped hair styles that sometimes gave her the aspect of a religious icon.
Photo: Everett Collection6/21Elizabeth Taylor
This violet-eyed English actress wed Richard Burton (for the first time) in 1964 with flowers crowning her face and hyacinths twisting down her fall.
Photographed by Bert Stern, Vogue, January 01, 19657/21Jean Shrimpton
In 1965 Vogue cast English rose, Jean Shrimpton, as Spring, and festooned her brunette tresses with flowers.
Photographed by Gianni Penati, Vogue, January 15, 19689/21Lauren Hutton
Vogue dressed All-American Lauren Hutton’s tendrilled updo with humble daisies, a symbol of the Swinging ’60s for “hair—with more than a hint of romance about it.”
Photo: Everett Collection10/21Tatiana Papamoskou
Tatiana Papamoschou plays the tragic heroine of Greek myth in the 1977 film Iphigenia.
Photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, Vogue, December 200411/21Daria Werbowy
In Polynesia, where this photograph was taken, leaves known as hei are often worn or given as gifts.
Photo: Everett Collection12/21Kirsten Dunst
At Le Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette let her hair down, and indulged in pastoral fantasies in her custom-built hameau, or village.
Photo: Courtesy of Interscope Records13/21Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey, the sultry, throaty-voiced singer, who has been embraced by the fashion world, often wears flower crowns on stage.
Photographed by Mario Testino,Vogue, July 201214/21Karlie Kloss
The supermodel, in a Dolce & Gabbana dress and a lush, bucolic floral crown, on set in Brazil.
Photo: Getty Images16/21Lily Aldridge
The model channeled traditional Italian dress in black lace and dark blooms for a New York gala.
Photo: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images17/21Bingbings Fan
The actress in Marchesa at Cannes, looking like something out of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue, June 201720/21Elle Fanning
For Vogue's June 2017 cover, hair visionary Julien d’Ys adorned Fanning in pink petal roses.
Photo: Getty Images21/21Jennifer Lawrence
At the premiere of her film Mother!, Lawrence offered up a modern bohemian interpretation of the flower crown by weaving Japanese greens, dahlia, scabiosa, and orchids into her wispy updo.
