Corset Espalier

THE ORIGIN

Espalier is the practice of forcing a tree flat against a wall and training it to grow along a fixed geometry. It was refined in the walled gardens of monasteries and later in the potagers of the French court where the method was not decorative but structural: the wall stored heat, the frame carried the weight and the plant produced more under constraint than it ever had in the open. The gardener did not sketch the tree. He built the frame and waited.

THE MOTIF

The branch here does not scatter. It runs as a single diagonal across the front and every flower on it sits where a seam or a bone allows it to sit — the embroidery is trained to the drafting, not laid over it. Where the plant crosses the panel, the ground is cut away. We kindly ask you to give us 3 weeks to emboider and tailor this corset for you made to measure.