Check out these beautiful blooms for Valentine’s Day
Our book Blooms brings together the best floral designs. Here’s a few ideas if you need a petal push
The floral designers in our new book Blooms: Contemporary Floral Design don’t live for Valentine’s Day. “From music videos to fashion shows, fine art to photography, the line between floristry and other art forms has been blurred, creating something not yet classifiable,” writes Commissioning Editor Victoria Clarke, in our new book’s introduction.
“Florists are no longer operating only from traditional shops and styling floral events – instead, pop-up displays, cult magazines and digital platforms from Instagram to blogs are offering today’s designers a variety of outlets for their work and a virtually unlimited audience.”
Nevertheless, a few of those featured in this beautiful new publication have some good advice for tasteful bouquet giving tonight.
Matt Richardson of London’s Urban Flower Company (above) delights in the punkier side of city life. “I love the combination of an urban setting with greenery as the oxygen of the city. Greens can calm the chaos of urban living,” he says in our new book.
Fellow London design studio Palais, mixes form, colour and texture that would impress many contemporary fine aritsts. “Founder Emma Weaver’s background in sculpture and set design is evident in her work, but it is the dreamlike quality of her pieces that catches the eye,” explains our new book.
Bold Oxlip’s Harriet Slaughter used to work with Weaver, but now specializes in a more minimal approach. “It is, I suppose, a sense of undoneness, but with composure,” that’s how Slaughter describes her style in our book. “For me, floristry is essentially more curating than design.”
The Brazilian studio La Musa De Las Flores, meanwhile, creates arrangements that are naturalistic and incredibly romantic. “The finished pieces look effortless, with a wild disarray,” says Blooms.
For something of a more unnatural clash, try taking a look at the neo-Fauvist work of French studio Debeaulieu. This design atelier is the “master of the art of deliberate discord, and succeeds in pulling off one aesthetic shock after another while never jeopardizing taste,” says our book.
Londoner Nik Southern’s floral design concern, Grace & Thorn, dwells on a plant’s less celebrated aspects. “Southern's team are interested in the detail – the thorn as well as the bloom. Weird shapes appeal: in the shop, concrete shelves drip with carnivorous plants.”
NYC’s Lewis Miller Design, meanwhile, is a pioneer of striking floral recycling and reuse. “Miller began by placing a colourful halo of 2,000 dahlias and carnations around the John Lennon Memorial in Central Park. It was, unsurprisingly, an instant hit, and Miller has gone on to transform other statues with lush garlands of rich pink blooms, or filled the city’s mesh trash cans with towering arrangements of cheerful forsythia, dahlias, tulips, poppies and roses.”
And Paris’s Odorantes floral design practice, founded by Emmanuel Sammartino and Christophe Hervé, favour scent over sight. “The underlying concept is simple but brilliant: the scent of flowers. All the flowers in the shop – mostly roses, but with a few armfuls of other blooms, depending on the season, such as lavender or lilies – are classified according to their scent.”
To see much more work along these lines order a copy of Blooms: Contemporary Floral Design here.