May 21, 2018
Wedgwood is showing its green thumb. Image credit: Wedgwood
British home and lifestyle brand Wedgwood is honoring its roots through a partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society.
Wedgwood will have a presence at three of the organization’s flower shows this year, presenting conceptual garden installations or hosting attendees for tea. Along with inspiring consumers to embrace nature and gardening, Wedgwood is taking this as an opportunity to champion sustainable living.
"Wedgwood, like many of the established tabletop companies, has had to reinvent themselves and their products from a more traditional, formal aesthetic to one that better meets the needs of the consumer today, that of less formal one," said Rebecca Miller, founder/CEO of Miller & Company, New York.
"They have learned to embrace their heritage and in so doing seek partners who can authentically support them through meaningful and relevant experiences that not only showcase their products, but serve to educate and inform the consumer of the joys ownership will provide in a variety of settings," she said. "This approach captures a broader and often new client base from which to gain exposure and grow revenue."
Ms. Miller is not affiliated with Wedgwood, but agreed to comment as an industry expert. Wedgwood was reached for comment.
In bloom
Brand founder Josiah Wedgwood’s eldest son John Wedgwood was an avid gardener. The younger Mr. Wedgwood founded the RHS in 1804.
In 2018, Wedgwood is honoring its more than 200-year-old history with the organization through a series of appearances at RHS shows.
At the RHS Chelsea Flower Show from May 22 to May 26, Wedgwood will present a garden designed by Jo Thompson. The installation is inspired by the tea gardens that served as socializing spaces in 1700s.
Visitors will enter through openings in the plantings. From there, they can walk along a path in the garden’s stone floor to access a bench positioned within a bronze sculpture.
A stream runs through the installation amid the plants and rocks.
“Wedgwood’s vision was for an inspirational, innovative and feminine space with a feeling of romance, sophistication and elegance,” Ms. Thompson said in a statement.
The Wedgwood Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Image credit: RHS
At the RHS show in Chelsea, Wedgwood will also be hosting a tea conservatory. This space offers visitors a chance to sample blends picked by the brand’s global tea curator Bernadine Tay.
Along with serving as a space for hospitality, Wedgwood’s tea conservatory will retail some of its latest collections, including lines inspired by nature and botanical themes.
Following the Chelsea show, Wedgwood will be sponsoring the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show from June 6 to 10.
The brand has a long relationship with the estate. The Duchess of Devonshire commissioned flower pots from Wedgwood in the 1800s, and today Wedgwood afternoon tea is served in the house’s Flying Childers restaurant.
Wedgwood’s installation at the show, titled “Emergence,” is constructed out of stone quarried on site. Celebrating the art of dry stone walling, the garden features a limestone wall rising up from a field.
Rendering of Wedgwood's Emergence. Image credit: RHS
Eventually, the structure morphs into a more purposeful gritstone wall. Marking this transition is a glass panel.
Emergence was created by Chatsworth’s head of gardens and landscape Steve Porter and Carl Hardman, a craftsman at Landmark Walling.
At both Chatsworth and the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show from July 18 to 22, Wedgwood will also be hosting its tea conservatory.
Wedgwood tea conservatory. Image credit: Wedgwood
"Wedgwood has been bringing the outdoors indoors for over 250 years through design influenced by historical, architectural and horticultural elements and the various use of raw and finished materials through a wide range of related product categories," Ms. Miller said.
"We see many of these same influences in the gardens that have been designed for the 2018 event," she said. "The Emergence installation features an unrefined limestone wall that gently mutates into a more refined gritstone wall using a glass panel as the key transformational element.
"If we study the materials, we see a natural segue between the two brands. We begin to understand the similarities of their respective bespoke product offerings, bone china, white Jasper, crystal, metals, refined and organic shapes of 'water washed pebbles,' a genuine unveiling of a clever 'garden to table' series of experiences. First in the gardens themselves, then onto the products and lastly to the Tea Conservatory pop-up."
Experience and engagement
As younger consumers become less interested in landscaping, flower shows such as those by the Royal Horticultural Society are adopting new strategies engrained in the events themselves.
The RHS Chatsworth Flower Show now wields a variety of tools to appeal to younger generations that are less likely to be interested in these types of events. Platforms such as Instagram and virtual reality, coupled with a focus on sustainability are a few themes organizations such as RHS are using (see story).
As consumers continue to seek out experiences over things, Wedgwood also linked with other players for hospitality partnerships.
British luxury home and lifestyle brand Wedgwood is beginning a worldwide tradition at Langham Hotels.
“The Langham Afternoon Tea by Wedgwood” first launched in Hong Kong, and remaining locations will soon follow. With Wedgwood as the regular place setting for menu items, Langham is creating a centralized location for consumers to access Wedgwood products (see story).
"Wedgwood benefits by participating in these shows from a marketing and consumer engagement standpoint," Ms. Miller said. "They are recreating 'secret gardens' and 'tea gardens,' a past perfect destination where one could socialize, enjoy nature and drink tea.
"The Wedgwood Garden is their modern interpretation. It allows the perfect setting for consumers, of all ages, to participate as they desire," she said. "It draws families, couples, singles and enthusiasts alike who enjoy entertaining, gardening, the beauty of raw and finished materials and design into a very relaxed and self-paced experience.
"It helps to elevate and move an established brand forward as one who understands and responds to the consumer’s needs and desires today."
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