Flower Crown

A flower crown is an ephemeral head dress made from flowers. They are often associated with femininity and/or childhood in art.For examples, see two pre-raphaelite works by Adolphe-William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1884) and by John Waterhouse (1910). However, fanartists naturally like to add flower crowns to illustrations or graphics of their favorite male characters.
==2013 Meme==
Flower crowns have always been around, but in 2013, they became a widespread meme on Tumblr. According to Know Your Meme, this meme started in One Direction fandom in March 2013, was inspired by a 2011 tweet by Harry Styles ("I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair."), and spread to other fandoms by May. Know Your Meme appears to be right about One Direction, but wrong about the tweet. 
The earliest posts in the tags flower harry, flower child harry, and flower crown harry date to March 21, 2013, but Tumblr user hearteyesharry's post flower child harry is the best harry: a masterpost identifies fanart posted by mainlyapes on or before March 17 as the source of the meme.mainlyapes's original post was deleted, but this reblog is dated March 17, 2013. happpily's post includes a different piece by mainlyapes as the origin, but this March 20 round-up post shows that mainlyapes had made at least three separate posts with similar art. Tumblr user lourehs claims to have the honor of creating the first Flower Crown Harry manips; her post was dated March 18, only a day after the art was probably posted.In the tags on a 15 June 2013 post, lourehs writes, can we talk about how i was the first one who made a flower crown edit and then people started throwing flower crowns on stage can we pretend he wouldn't wear them if it wasn't for me can we pretend i changed harry styles' life ok good. The original Tumblr post contained four manips and has garnered 3,704 notes as of 20 January 2015. Fanfic inspired by the meme was being posted to the AO3 by March 22.Pure by eatreadwritesleep, posted 2013-03-22, is probably the first and features Punk Louis/Flower Child Harry.
Although Harry Styles' tweet is incorporated into many flower crown Tumblr posts, there is a two-year gap between the tweet and the start of the meme, leaving open the question "why now?" Tumblr user actualhannibal points to Lana Del Rey and general fashion trends in 2013 as the direct inspiration for the memeactualhannibal. Flower Crowning FAQ, posted to Tumblr on 20 July 2013.. Although actualhannibal was in a different fandom and did not appear to be aware of the meme's origin in 1D, a look at the flower crown Tumblr tag circa March 2013 confirms that Tumblr users were already interested in flower crowns at that time. In fact, there were non-fannish examples of flower crowns photoshopped onto women circulating as early as February 22.See this untitled collage by m-odernique, dated February 22, 2013.
The tweet is actually the title of a 2005 song, I Wish I Was a Punk Rocker (With Flowers in My Hair), though it is not clear that memers recognized the reference. The song is about nostalgia for both the 60s hippie and 70s punk eras. A few months before the flower crown meme started, 1D fandom had experienced a punk edit meme, and edits pairing Flower Crown Harry with Punk Louis appeared very quickly after the new meme started.fleurlourry suggested pairing them on March 21, 2013. Combining the two memes may have happened because punk edits were still in circulation, but it is equally likely that the song title itself, quoted frequently with flower crown posts, encouraged the combination. The Punk/Flower Child link does not appear to have carried over to other fandoms.
Flower crowns became especially popular in the nascent Hannibal fandom, so much so that the showrunners noticed. In July Hugh Dancy wore a flower crown during a San Diego Comic Con panel. In September, NBC ran a contest for fans to submit photos of themselves wearing (real or photoshopped) flower crowns. The first Hannibal flower crown manip to be posted is thought to be i hate everything (except for puppies, I love puppies)10,283 notes as of 17 September 2016. archive link. direct link by ammapreakers (hettiennes) posted on April 28, 2013. Although the start of the show coinciding with the meme may be the proximate cause of flower crowns taking root in Hannibal, cleolinda speculated that the meme "caught on as the fandom's way of balancing the darkness and tragedy and gore by being silly and light-hearted and imagining Will Graham Having Nice Days".cleolinda. I keep thinking a "pannibal" ought to have something to do with bread, posted to LiveJournal 19 July 2013. Also posted to her tumblr. (Oddly, flower crowns may have caught on in 1D for the opposite reason--Flower Crown Harry was consistent with existing fanon and quickly became canon, to the surprise of nobody.)
Although most Tumblr memes last for a few days (or a day) and then sink into obscurity, the flower crown meme lasted months and may still be generating new works as of 2015For example, coconutwishes posted digital color illustrations of Zayn Malik (March 31, 2015) and Niall Horan (April 10, 2015) wearing flower crowns. It inspired fans to give flower crowns to the subjects of the manips that had been posted, and in turn the footage of a Harry Styles or Gerard WayHours after Gerard Way's 15 May 2015 concert, lehnshrr posted this gifset. archived reblog. wearing their flower crowns led to other fans creating gifs and art of these moments. Almost any fanart posted on tumblr (or deviantartFor example, see Flower Crown Sauron by sycamoreleaf, posted to devianart on 3 October 2013. Artist's note: "Thanks to tumblr I’ve seen every a-hole of a character wear a flower crown, except for the biggest a-hole of them all. So here you go Sauron, have some herbs in your locks!") since 2013 that features someone wearing a flower crown can be attributed to the influence of this meme.
==Examples==
=== Pre-Internet Print Zine Art===
File:Sandh15back.jpg|back cover of S and H #15 by Signe Landon, depicting Starsky wearing a jaunty flower crown. In issue #16, a reader wrote in to ask, "Could we have Hutch in a wreath of daffodils next time? Please?" (1980)
File:Sandh17insidelandon.jpg|Evidently the fan artist was amenable to requests.... art from issue #17 by Signe Landon, depicting Hutch from Starsky & Hutch. (1981)
File:Tacscalender-7.jpg|from TACS a k/s calendar, Star Trek: TOS (1984)
File:Bookofsecrets2back.jpg|Vincent from Beauty and the Beast (TV), from The Book of Secrets #2, the back cover by Lynne Gutshall (1988) 
Image:lightthrough2-1.jpg|from What Light Through Yonder Window #2, artist is Lynette Combs (1995)
=== 2013 Tumblr Meme===
File:Flowerchildharryart.jpg|alleged meme starter; Harry Styles fanart by mainlyapes, requested by anonymous (March 2013)
File:Flowercrownharry.jpg|early Tumblr meme example: flower crown photoshopped onto Harry Styles (March 2013)
File:Flowerfrank.jpg|later meme example: Frank Iero. The colors in the original photo have been subtly altered to blend with the purple flower crown. (May 2013)
File:Hannibalcollage.jpg|DIY zine-style digital collage of actor Hugh Dancy actually wearing a flower crown; art by nopeicant. The text is from stock transparent images that were widely circulated on Tumblr at the time. (July 2013)
File:Tazormoosehq.jpg|Tumblr account TazerMoose HQ's banner, likely inspired by the meme (2013)
=== Post-2013 Examples ===
File:Cole with flowers on his head by Liedeke.jpg|Cole from Dragon Age wearing a flower crown. (Liedeke, December 2014)
File:Fire Emblem - Flower Crown by Yotstuba-no-Clover.jpg|Ike and Soren from Fire Emblem sharing a large flower crown. (Yotsuba-no-Clover, June 2015)
File:Maedhros x Fingon Flowercrown by the-ALEF.jpg|Maedhros from the Silmarillion placing a flower crown on Fingon. (the-ALEF, Feb. 2016)
File:Lyanna Stark by IrenHorrors.jpg|Lyanna from ASoIaF/Game of Thrones in a crown of blue roses. She was given such a crown by Prince Rhaegar in a canonical event. (IrenHorrors, June 2017)
File:A King of His Own by KuroCyou.jpg|A male elf Inquisitor from Dragon Age with a flower crown. (KuroCyou, Oct. 2017)
File:Dandelions and forgetmenots by CherryInTheSun.jpg|Tifa from Final Fantasy VII frustratedly trying to make a flower crown while Aerith wears a completed one. (CherryInTheSun, Sept. 2019)
File:Sunset by MaXKennedy.jpg|Jaskier from The Witcher placing a flower crown on a sleeping Geralt (maXKennedy, Jan. 2020)
File:Flowers for you by hatakeflor.jpg|Aerith from Final Fantasy VII placing a flower crown on a sleeping Cloud. (Hatakeflor, Sept. 2022)
===Other Examples===
There are many examples of the flower crown trope, both predating and postdating the 2013 Tumblr craze:
*XMFC: I love you this much by Claparo-Sans. Chibi watercolor of Erik Lensherr and Charles Xavier. (2011)
*MCR: Frerard6 by mcr1983 (2011)
*Yuri!!! on Ice: Characters Victor Nikiforov and Christophe Giacometti canonically wear flower crowns in the anime, as an homage to real-life figure skater Johnny Weir.Interview with Johnny Weir, posted December 15, 2016.Crunchyroll YouTube interview with Johnny Weir, reference to flower crowns at 1:20. Posted February 6 2017. Fanart of multiple characters wearing flower crowns exists, Victor Nikiforov being the most common motive.
*Boku no Hero Academia: flower crown edits by chibigikochin. Anime characters wearing flower crowns that match their superhero costumes. (2017)
*The Fall: #NowFuckOff by Kizuna. Digital manipulation of Stella Gibson. (2016)
==References==
Category:2017 Featured Articles
Category:2013 Memes
Category:2013 Tumblr
Category:Art Memes
Category:One Direction
Category:Hannibal