Human Flower Project
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Las Floristas: High Profile
California philanthropists host a gaga gala with crash helmets and flowers.
Lillian Molieri wears “The Princess of Scheherazade,”
Las Floristas Headdress Ball, May 2, 1952
Photo: Los Angeles Public Library
In Los Angeles, where the God of Visibility presides, you won’t find charities baking cookies and tearing raffle tickets. At least not Las Floristas. This volunteer group raises money for disabled children with an annual black tie dinner in Beverly Hills and a top-heavy fashion show that’s one part Busby Berkeley, one part Max Ernst, one part J. Robert Oppenheimer, two parts Minnie Pearl.
They call it The Headdress Ball. This year’s event, the 69th, will take place Friday, April 20. Over four decades, the Las Floristas organization has supported Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center with more than $7 million, much derived from the splendid and eminently understandable desire to see beautiful women carrying thirty pounds of flower-encrusted furniture on their heads. Jeri Goldstein, president of the 2007 ball, sees the headgear as “mini-Rose Parade floats.”
Last fall we thought we’d smashed through the looking glass, coming upon these shots of Headdress Balls past in the Los Angeles Public Library archive. Correspondent Richard Seekins of The Flower Place in Fountain Valley, CA, kindly explained a bit of the engineering involved.
“Freeway—U.S.A.” worn by
Mrs. Theodore Bentley
Las Floristas Headdress Ball
May 5, 1962
Photo: Los Angeles Public Library
“The main headdresses are constructed on a fiber glass helmet which has a back brace molded to the gal’s back; at the end of this is a pallet which fits into a pocket in the back of the merry widow corset so all of the weight is carried on the hips.” Having not worn a merry widow in a month or two, we’re having a hard time fitting that pallet into the back pocket but will keep working at it, Rich.
We also learned from Richard, “There is a weight limit of 30 pounds. And the height cannot exceed 6 ft above the mannequin’s head” or be wider than “4 ft. across at the bottom. (This used to be 6 ft. but the hotel has remodeled and the headdresses must fit thru the railings on the ballroom.)”
And isn’t it just like remodelers not to take into account a woman wearing a highway interchange on her head?
Friday’s Las Floristas Ball is Ticket to Paradise, a theme dreamed up by florist Chris Matsumoto. We hope that some enterprising floral designer might attempt a 6 ft. raffle ticket splitting in two, with a fountain of heliconia, pineapple, and surfboards erupting from the gash (but not exceeding 4 ft. at bottom).
Grand march of Las Floristas Headdress Ball, May 1, 1965
“A Salute to the Seven Lively Arts,” Beverly Hilton Hotel
Photo: Los Angeles Public Library
Las Floristas Headdress Ball will take place again at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. For reservations and information, call (310) 607-8495. We hope nobody slips a disk. Thank you, Richard. Please let us hear from you after the merry widows unhook and go home.