The term floristry feels like an echo from the past; cellophane wrapped roses with no scent, chrysanthemum wreaths for funerals, gypsophila for weddings. A word far away from cutting edge design. Yet floristry is, without a doubt, having a moment.
At Milan Design Week, flowers were everywhere. Hamish Powell, a floral artist (with over 200,000 followers on Instagram and a client list that includes Acne Studios, YSL and Loewe) had not one but two installations. Powell collaborated with Sten Studio with 'The Wedding' in Alcova, working in a palette of white and brilliant orange, skilfully offsetting the coloured marble figures. At Deoron, the colour was amplified to show off Fundamental Berlin’s Gravity vase, with its warped grid form softened by puffs of blue and tangerine.
Left: Sten Studio x Hamish Powell. Photo Ramona Balaban, courtesy of Sten Studio. Right: Verderame for Dilmos.
There was another ambitious installation by Kelly Wearstler x H&M; here plump piles of flowers were reflected in refracted mirrors. And at Dilmos, Milan-based atelier Verderame created extraordinary, flowing botanical sculptures in soft, faded colours that transformed the gallery space. Everywhere you looked there were blue orchids, yellow, red and blue poppies, and even a flower portraits workshop at Convey, where Chiara Lionello encouraged people to create their own displays in one of the designer’s Inserti vases.
Left: Kelly Wearstler x HM. Right: Hamish Powell for Fundamental Berlin at Deoron.
It wasn't just Milan either. JW Anderson celebrated Chelsea Flower Show at his Pimlico shop by inviting Burnt Fen Flower’s Alfie Nickerson to arrange flowers in vases designed by legendary British florist Constance Spry. And at Chelsea Flower Show itself the floristry and floral design section included the inspired Celestial Meadow by Orchis Floral Design, an upright and inverted landscape, and Hanako Motoya of hanaikebito’s nest of red flowers, inspired by ikebana. All a million miles away from traditional preconceptions of what floristry should be.
Left: Hanako Motoya of hanaikebito. Right: Orchis Floral Design
So, suggestions, please, for a new word for this raft of designers working with flowers and foliage. There has to be something better than florist.
