Florada is honoured to have been invited to create Malala Yousafzai in flowers for Fleurs de Villes as part of the FEMMES floral exhibition at The Calyx, Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney.

Malala is a Pakistani woman who was shot in the face when she was 15 years old by the Taliban, while riding the bus home from school. Now an activist for female education and human rights, she is the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Malala was created with few new materials—the structure was created using reusable vessels, no single-use plastic or glue was applied—all of the flowers are local and Australian grown to reduce environmental impact, carbon emissions, bio-security risks, & pesticide usage.

All flowers used were fresh—the design is free of dyed, dried, or preserved flowers that are treated with toxic chemicals and harmful to our health and the environment.

With a roll of hessian and a needle, a floral embellished hijab was created by hand-stitching fresh statice flowers to the exterior, that will dry naturally over the course of the show. The base structure was made using vases, buckets, and recycled jars as water sources, and a small amount of chicken wire for support that can be reused over and over.

The design of the garden from which she is emerging speaks to her harsh beginning with purple wattle, and as it moves towards the front, love, strength and positivity is portrayed with bright red red roses coming up from the darkness while hues of lilac, blues and pinks (also her favourite colour) as the central focal point to celebrate youth and femininity.

Watch how we created Malala here!