Carve out a high fashion twist this Halloween with a pumpkin vase!

• This year pumpkin decorations have gone high fashion, inspired by the runway
• Top designers have exhibited pumpkin inspired looks across winter collections
• Designers and influencers have even been covering pumpkins in gold leaf 

Pumpkin season is upon us. Ghoulish orange faces grimace at us from every windowsill and scream on every doorstep. But while these designs are fine — and fun — for children, let’s be honest, they can somewhat ruin a stylishly-curated interior.

Never fear, however — this year’s Halloween gourds have had a grown-up makeover. Forget creepy faces, the latest décor must-have is a posh pumpkin given a high fashion twist.

It started on the runway at Loewe when artist and Turner Prize nominee Anthea Hamilton placed giant leather pumpkins either side of Jonathan Anderson’s autumn/winter 2022 catwalk and models clutched garish, gathered, pumpkin-hued bags.

The show notes went so far as to describe pumpkins as ‘objects ripe with surrealist potential and humour, but also replete with beauty’.

Whitney Bromberg Hawkings (pictured) shares three different pumpkin vase and flower displays you can create at home…

Others, including Chloe, Alexander McQueen and Max Mara, picked up on the theme, showing rich spiced oranges and bulbous silhouettes across their winter collections. The chicly conspicuous shade of spiced pumpkin — not quite brown, not quite orange — has become a firm favourite with fashion editors and glossy magazines, appearing on the rails of Cos, Zara and Cefinn, among others.

According to consumer trend forecasting company WGSN, orange was one of the most popular colours on the autumn/winter 2022 catwalks.

‘The rise of spiced-pumpkin shades is part of a general global shift towards warmer, baked tones,’ says interior design and colour consultant Alina Schartner. ‘From a colour psychology perspective, deep oranges naturally bring warmth to the home, which is why there is a spike in interest every autumn in countries with cooler climates.’

Cult fashion brand Story MFG has cardigans and tops emblazoned with images of the fruit (pumpkins are technically fruits as they are the edible parts of the plant that contain seeds), while the influencer and booming tablescape brand Mrs Alice is selling out of velveteen pumpkin trios (costing £68) to scatter around place settings.

Others, including Chloe (pictured), Alexander McQueen and Max Mara, picked up on the theme, showing rich spiced oranges and bulbous silhouettes across their winter collections

This year’s ideas for front-door Halloween decor are certainly haute couture. Designers, taste-makers and influencers have been covering pumpkins in gold leaf, patchworking them in expensive fabrics and creating DIY marbled pumpkins using nail polish dripped into water. Large pumpkins can even be painted and turned into pieces of art.

Happily, 2022’s chicest — and simplest — way to out pumpkin your neighbours is far less work than any of that — simply fill it with vertiginous floral displays.

‘A pumpkin vase is a great idea for Halloween,’ says Flowerbx founder Whitney Bromberg Hawkings, who worked for almost two decades with the fashion designer Tom Ford. ‘Because, to state the obvious, pumpkins are naturally shaped like a fishbowl vase, come in many sizes and live happily inside or out for a week or more. They are easy to make too — you don’t need to be a florist.’

The perfect centrepiece to impress dinner party guests, a pumpkin full of sunflowers puts a pretty, elegant spin on the Halloween tradition. Marks & Spencer even do a ready-to-arrange pumpkin bouquet for your own scooped-out fruit including antirrhinum, chrysanthemum, eucalyptus and rose (£35, marksandspencer.com).

The Autumn Winter 2022 collection during the Max Mara show at Milan Fashion Week this February

Instagram culture is further fuelling our passion for all things pumpkin. ‘Driven partially by the outdoor lockdown boom, squashes, gourds and pumpkins of all descriptions are having a moment,’ says trend forecaster and style consultant Hannah Craggs, who believes consumers are seeking greater connection with nature.

For a really fashionable look, seek out harder-to-get varieties of squash and gourd — such as crown princes (blue-grey), acorn squash (smaller, dark green and orange-yellow), Japanese kabocha squash (dark green and flattish) or casperita (tiny and white) — and arrange them artfully in a pumpkin still life.

But this doesn’t have to be an expensive trend. A pumpkin can be picked up from your local supermarket for as little as £2. It’s sustainable too — when you have had enough of your pumpkin vase, you can eat it or compost it. Nothing needs wasting or sending to landfill, so Halloween needn’t be ghastly after all.

FACT BOX TITLEHOW TO GO SPOOKY IN STYLE

Whitney Bromberg Hawkings shares three different pumpkin vase and flower displays you can create at home…

Instagram culture is further fuelling our passion for all things pumpkin 

SUNFLOWER PUMPKIN VASE

1. Find a straight cylindrical vase a bit shorter than the height of the pumpkin. Place it over the stem and draw around it, then use this as a guide to cut into the top.

2. Using a big metal spoon, scoop out the pumpkin’s soft insides and seeds. Do not fill the pumpkin with water or it will rot.

3. Insert the vase and fill with water. Raise the vase on a block of wood if it comes up short.

4. Cut sunflower stems at a 45-degree angle to maximise water uptake.

5. Arrange about ten stems per vase. Add autumnal foliage if desired.

PUMPKIN HOUSEPLANT

1. A large white pumpkin can house a potted plant and look beautiful on a side table or front doorstep. Start by repeating steps 1 and 2 from above.

2. Insert the plant, still in its pot, and ensure it is well watered.

3. Cover the pot’s surface, and any space between the plant and pumpkin’s edge, in dry or fresh moss to unify the plant visually with the pumpkin.

MIXED FLORALS

1. For a dramatic and inexpensive tablescape, repeat steps 1 and 2 from the sunflower vase but make a larger hole in the pumpkin’s top than before, about half to two-thirds of the pumpkin’s diameter.

2. Place a large vase inside the pumpkin and fill with water.

3. Place chicken wire bent into the shape of a small box inside the vase.

4. Start with the tallest flowers in the centre; the wire will help keep them in place. Use strong sculptural flowers such as roses, carnations and dahlias, filling in the gaps with smaller, softer, more fluttery shapes, such as hypericum berries or any foliage.

5. Refresh the water every couple of days and keep somewhere cool.

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