Sophie Callahan at the Chelsea Flower Show

Last month, I was kindly invited to attend my first ever Chelsea Flower Show with my fave Team Hiho. 

I had no idea what to expect. I regularly attend a lot of horse shows, so I just imagined it would be something similar, with a lot less horses and a lot more flowers. I wasn’t too far wrong! Pimms, ice cream, shopping and jewellery are a common theme at both floral and equine events, it seems.

As a first timer, my initial impression was that I couldn’t believe we were in such a central spot of London. How wonderful that these temporary, magical gardens can spring up from nowhere, in the city centre, only to be gone a few days later. 

Months and years of hard work, cultivating these beautiful blooms, culminating in a sensational display of life and colour. I am definitely not green fingered, in any way but I was utterly awestruck by the beauty of many of the displays. I can’t imagine how much planning, creativity and hard work goes into creating such masterpieces. 

Speaking of which, the Hiho stand was looking pretty fancy and unlike I’d ever seen it before. 

It’s quite special to see that all of the shopping stands go all out, to embrace this floral gala and there are flowers of all shapes and sizes, sprouting from every imaginable space, on every stand you visit.

Ordinarily, the Hiho Silver stand would be decorated with pictures of horses and their equestrian jewellery would be front and centre of their display cases. But I was quick to notice that the stand was dressed for a different audience, at Chelsea.

It was fascinating to see how the team had diversified for this event, pinpointing the different market, at Chelsea and decorating the stand according; ensuring that the jewellery they knew would be popular, was at the forefront of the design, but being careful to be sure that the stand remained indesputably and instantly recognisable as Hiho Silver.

Various clusters of Saxifraga Southside seedling, grasses, ferns and pansies adorned each corner of the stand, embracing the show’s celebration for all things floral and six cheeky magpie scultpures, which were the work of renowned sculptor, Belinda Sillars, stood proudly with pieces of jewellery grasped within their beaks.

The ‘six for gold’ magpies were actually created, bespoke, for Hiho’s Chelsea stand in 2016, to mark the launch of Hiho’s solid gold collection. And they two years later, they still stand pride of place on a beautifully put together stand.

Huge thank you, once again to Team Hiho, for a lovely day out and something a little different to my ordinarily very equestrian calendar. It meant I was able to treat my non-horsey parents to a day out and spend some quality time with them. It was the first time my Mum (a self confessed Hiho fanatic) was able to visit a Hiho stand in the flesh, try on jewellery until her heart's content and let me know which pieces she wanted for every birthday and Christmas to come. Lol! 

Such a lovely day out!