Golden Goose taps September Studio for a global flower fest
A rose by any other name
By 
SOME WEAR THEIR HEARTS on their sleeves. At the risk of sounding like a certain fictitious columnist adored by Gen X, this year I’m more inclined to wear mine on my feet. Better investment. Did I just suggest that I’d like a pair of shoes for Valentine’s Day? Yes. Golden Goose, to be specific.
This February, Golden Goose is marking Valentine’s Day with a series of in-store activations that shift the focus away from gift wrapping and towards making. As part of the programme, the brand has partnered with Sydney-based florist Bryce Heyworth of September Studio to create floral installations and workshops across three international stores.
The collaboration forms part of Golden Goose’s Valentine’s Day world tour, with events taking place in Tokyo, Milan and New York. At each location, Heyworth is working with local growers to source flowers that reflect the region, rather than replicating a fixed visual template from city to city.
The gel that brought Golden Goose and Heyworth together came from a shared interest in process and variation. Golden Goose sneakers are finished by hand and intentionally distressed, meaning no two pairs are identical. Heyworth’s floral work operates under similar conditions. Materials change daily. Stems arrive in different shapes and sizes. Outcomes are shaped as much by availability as by intent.
“We kind of both celebrate the perfection in the imperfections,” Heyworth says. “Using wild ingredients and wild forms and things that you wouldn’t usually relate to luxury, but seeing those in a way where we can interpret them through design to provide a more luxurious product.”
The collaboration sits alongside Golden Goose’s Valentine’s Day sneaker release, with the brand launching a limited-edition version of its True-Star as part of its “Meanings of Love” campaign. Inspired by late-1960s running shoes, the True-Star is offered in new colourways including dark blue suede with a white nappa leather star, light grey suede with metallic silver accents, burgundy nappa leather with mismatched laces, and a black suede version finished with crystal details and two-tone hiking laces.
It all kicked off in Sydney this week, marking the first stop of Golden Goose’s February programme. The installation was built entirely from local and native flowers, with materials sourced through growers Heyworth works with regularly, alongside elements taken directly from his own garden. Hydrangeas feature prominently, used at the end of the season for their mottled colour and softened form, alongside flowering gum and bunya nuts, the oversized seed cones of Araucaria bidwillii.
“It started off as the idea that we were going to do something in Australia,” he says. “I said, this is amazing, but let’s take this a bit further and let’s tell stories using Golden Goose as the creative vehicle to take us around to different parts of the world.”
As with the international activations to follow, the Sydney installation was shaped by availability rather than prescription, responding to what was locally grown and in season.
The resulting schedule is tight. Tokyo’s activation at HAUS Ginza takes place on February 8, followed by Milan at Via Cusani on February 11, before concluding in New York’s SoHo store on February 13. Heyworth will travel to each location to install the work in person.
“It’s a tight turnaround,” he says. “Preparation is key.”
That preparation relies heavily on existing relationships with growers. September Studio regularly works overseas through workshops and in-store projects, which has allowed Heyworth to build a network of suppliers across different markets.
“We have good relationships with growers all around the world,” he says. “That’s allowed us to be able to do this, but also do it in a sense where we’re comfortable and confident that the stories that we’re telling through flowers are genuine and unique.”
Each city has its own material focus. Tokyo’s installation will include lathyrus, Japanese orchids and forsythia. Milan will feature hydrangea and coryllus. New York will centre on oncidium, thunbergii and rose. The selections are shaped in collaboration with growers and adjusted based on seasonal availability.
“Being led by growers is always a really cool point to start at,” Heyworth says. “Having a list of we have to use X, Y, Z doesn’t really allow you to be dynamic in design.”
That flexibility is central to how Heyworth works. Floral design, as he describes it, is less about imposing form than responding to it.
“You’re at the mercy of mother nature,” he says. “No stem ever grows the same twice.”
Heyworth didn’t set out to be a florist. The 31-year-old trained originally as a ceramicist, with a background in hospitality. September Studio began almost incidentally when he and his cousin took over a retail space in Darlinghurst.
“We kind of bought a store not really knowing what we wanted to do,” he says. “After about six months, we were just doing the same boring stuff as everyone else, and I wanted to take more creative control.”
That shift led to a practice focused less on standard arrangements and more on form, texture and scale. September Studio now employs creatives from a range of backgrounds, including painters and dancers, with the emphasis placed on visual sensibility rather than formal floristry training.
“For me, you can teach the ones and twos of floristry,” Heyworth says. “It’s more important to have that eye for design and for seeing textures and palettes and colours.”
The studio’s work is often documented mid-process. Hands in soil. Floors covered in leaves. Arrangements shown before they are tidied. It is a practical reflection of the job itself.
“I sweep the floors at the end of the day,” Heyworth says. “It’s not a glamorous job.”
That emphasis on process is part of what helped Heyworth click with the brand. Golden Goose’s long-running interest in co-creation and customisation centres on allowing wearers to alter and mark their products over time. The floral installations operate under the same premise, with outcomes shaped by use, handling and environment. That and to embrace the imperfections, which is what makes something unique.
For Golden Goose, the Valentine’s Day collaboration emphasises presence over perfection. The installations exist briefly, then disappear.
No stem ever grows the same twice, as Heyworth says.
Arguably, the same logic applies to Golden Goose’s shoes.
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