Brief
Fortnum & Mason in London is famous for its luxury hampers, fine teas, gourmet foods and long-standing royal warrants as a grocer and tea merchant.
Their window display at their flagship historic department store at 181 Piccadilly always draws visitors to London.
This Autumn, they came up with the idea to celebrate the art of creating the perfect hamper by inviting eight fine artists to reimagine their iconic hamper in their own style, using a raw material other than the original wicker.
Creation
A hyper-realistic, identical iconic Fortnum & Mason hamper made out of sugar that easily fools the eye.
Every intricate detail, including the woven wicker and leather straps, is meticulously hand-sculpted in fondant. The colours are carefully matched by mixing various food colourings to achieve the exact shade of the hamper.
Michelle also recreated the signature content of the wicker basket using various techniques. The sparkling tea bottle and jam jar were created by using the sugar moulding technique. She first made a silicone mould from the original bottle, then filled it with icing sugar.
To achieve the bottle's glossy finish, she treated the surface and finished it with food-grade glaze spray.
The boxes were sculpted using sugar paste, and for the labels, she scanned the original and printed it on sugar paper. To enhance the details, she painstakingly repainted the gold and silver edging using edible paints.
No detail is spared; Michelle even recreated the wood wool used to protect delicate items inside the hamper using rice paper.
Overall, Michelle spent more than 200 hours on this amazing creation, which is on display at Fortnum & Mason Department Store, 181 Piccadilly, London, until October 2026.
