Green with envy

Thirteen international designers were asked to design a blanket for life-sized topiary elephants. Topiary is the art of creating sculpture from clipped trees and shrubs.

Besides our homegrown haute star, Alberta Ferretti, Diane von Furstenberg, Ralph Lauren, Carolina Herrera, Donna Karan, Julien Macdonald and Alice Temperley were some of the others. The elephants toured UK and Ireland, with a unique blanket beautifully created by each designer.

Tahiliani8217;s textile used the tree-of-life as a metaphor for our threatened ecosystem. 8220;The tree of life must be respected to protect the creatures in its wake. Unfortunately man does not, in all wisdom, have the right to topple the ecology for his greed,8221; says Tahiliani, who used silk dupoin and spent 140 hours in making it. The blanket was sold at the second-highest price at the auction and was bought by the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson.