It is a truth universally acknowledged that a writer in search of a catchy intro will inevitably end up plagiarising Jane Austen. But it's also a truth, and one that's pretty well accepted, that when it comes to the spring, our thoughts will inevitably turn to flowers and blossoms - with or without the aid of a literary classic.
Of course, if you need a little cerebral encouragement to get excited about the season's blooms, you could turn your attention to Vita Sackville-West's former haven at Sissinghurst. Gardening enthusiasts will journey from far and wide to visit the white rose that blooms in early June in the White Garden. And, of course, Britain has spent this week caught up in the annual joys of the Chelsea Flower Show.
But Vita's influence has spread much further afield than flowerbeds and everyone's discovering petal power. Gucci's Flora collection, for instance, inspired by a floral print originally created for Grace Kelly (when she was Her Serene Highness) has been a sell-out success. Diptyque, renowned purveyor of mood-enhancing candles, has just launched a new Pois de Senteur (sweet pea) fragrance - perfect for helping along a summer romance. Moyses Stevens, the plush florist, has created fresh flower hats - everything from a delicate pillbox, serenely decorated with a single flower on top, to a fully flower-encrusted cloche is available to order. Any resulting bees are included in the price.
Of course, fashion designers have also been caught up in the floral thrill of it all and have played with the English country aesthetic, taking floral prints ranging from traditional 1950s posies to abstract blossoms and hints of 1970s flower children and scattering them over everything in sight. From Rochas to Burberry, Peter Som to Carlos Miele, they've all succumbed to the colourful allure. Perhaps, amid the continual push and pull of fashion trends, they've been touched by the reassurance and timely rebirth of the natural perfection that blooms every spring, but whatever the reason, the floral profusion has left them all feeling decidedly warm and fuzzy.
"My collection was inspired by the English country garden - pansies, forget-me-nots, daffodils - and optimism and happiness," says the ball of designer positivity that is Paul Smith. His summer collection featured mismatched clashing floral prints, spliced with coloured stripes and festooned on everything from retro tea dresses to cheongsams. "The floral prints are about something fresh and inspirational because there's so much negativity in the world today," he says.
While you could just leave the house and carry out a good deed every day - feeding a stranger's parking meter, for instance (illegal perhaps, but a true sign of solidarity) - in the fashion world it's just as charitable to light up the eyes of anyone who happens to gaze on your feel-good floral prints. We're a selfless lot, really.
Others, too, are getting carried away on a romantic cloud of petals. Christopher Bailey, creative director at Burberry, sploshed florals all over coats and separates. "I wanted the mood of the collection to be light, fresh and optimistic, and the element of colour and floral print expressed a very English, feminine attitude," he explains.
The result was trenchcoats in Wedgwood blue flowers and colour-clashing floral brights on form-skimming skirts and sundresses.
Luisa Beccaria, the Italian designer with a strong 1950s aesthetic, is always romantic, even when she creates a business suit. For spring she offered a mix of floral prints and fancy flower appliqué using hand-painted organdie petals.
"I always love flower prints," says Beccaria. "They are fresh and feminine and they make the pieces look easy. They look good in the country but then, with a different type of shoe, they become very wearable in the day in the city."
It's also a good form of marketing: "We have all these very exclusive prints now and we are sure no one else has the same, so it's also a way to recognise the brand," Beccaria adds. But, she insists, getting that print right is not as easy as it looks. It's tricky "to combine the colours in the right way. It's all about the palette. You have to pick the right shades and it's difficult to produce new colours that are beautiful and flatter and that work together. It's a bit like a painting - I sometimes even take my colours from paintings."
Over at Sara Berman, the label run by sisters Sara and Amiee, they've taken a fresh approach and run floral trim on pockets and the underside of collars on white jackets to give them a summer lift. "Flowers always make people feel better. Somehow flowers remind people that the sun does shine sometimes," they explain. But there are also serious design points behind their oversized pansy prints. "Colour and distribution of shape is very important and central to making a print look new and exciting," they explain.
No one, of course, was more associated with the new and exciting than the late Christian Dior. He was a man inspired by flowers and gardening; he had even planned to go into partnership with a new florist venture. "I drew flower women," the designer once said. "With gentle shoulders, ample busts, reed-thin waists and skirts as open as a whirl of petals." For others, the silhouette was known as the New Look.
And though it seems to be one of those quirks of fate rather than a marketing attempt to celebrate the centenary of the couturier's birth (for this, the house has launched a retrospective at his family home in Granville), this spring Dior incumbent John Galliano has festooned embroidered flowers over everything from peplum jackets to bags and shoes. The modern Dior woman still blossoms, but in different ways - she's perhaps more likely to stride through a garden then saunter around it with secateurs and a pannier.
Victoire de Castellane, the designer behind the Dior Joaillerie range, has also been inspired by the founder's floral devotion. "His entire garden has inspired me and still inspires me . . . and sometimes I imagine different flowers depending on the season," she says. "Monsieur Dior's favourite flower was the lily of the valley. I decided to create a collection of lucky charms with this symbol when I began six years ago." She has also made large floral rings a trademark of the range: "I love to create different kinds of flowers like roses in onyx, coral, white or red - and even one in diamonds, as if it was snowing."
And it's just this abstraction from life that flowers - whether real or printed on a piece of fabric or carved in stone - can give us. For the London-based Australian designer Megan Park, flowers in fashion are always a firm favourite. "We live in very structured and urban environments, both physically and mentally. In order to balance our lives we infuse these structures with the softness of nature," she says. "There is a demographic showing the desire in the 21st century for our leisure time to be as far removed from these structured environments as possible. The beauty of floral forms draws us to them as it allows us to feel closer to a more natural space."
If the closest you can come to that is a new dress in your wardrobe, then why not? Hope, it seems, can spring eternal, even there.
Edwina Ings-Chambers is the FT's deputy fashion editor
