Gaita Fores just taught me how to arrange flowers

By: 8 years ago

The key to living my best life is weekly floral arrangements.

In this life, I am a lady of leisure whose professional occupation is lunching.

*My dream occupation involves social lunches, regular facials, and weekly floral arrangements.*

img_4628-min — *My dream occupation involves social lunches, regular facials, and weekly floral arrangements.*

So, when Gaita Fores invited me for a personal master class in floral arrangements, I thought:

THIS. IS. IT.

*Gaita Fores showed me how to prepare arrangements utilizing ageratum and cabbage roses.*

Of course, Gaita didn’t really personally invite me. The class was an intimate affair to highlight Fiori di Marghi’s Mother’s Day partnership with Univers. (Fiori di Marghi, Gaita’s flower company, will be hosting a pop-up at Univers until May 14.)

Gaita, a proponent of the “less is more” philosophy, fashioned untraditional arrangements, utilizing lisianthus, cabbage flower, and eucalyptus like the piece below.

*Lisianthus, cabbage flower, eucalyptus in an Astier de Villatte vase*

Her arrangements are often comprised of discards from nature, like the skins from the trunk of a coconut tree.

*Roses, astilbe, foliage, wrapped in coconut skin in a Skultuna vase*

Some arrangements are easy—and simple enough—to accomplish. In fact, the simplest arrangement in the blue vase called out to my inner rustic.

*This arrangement of Phalaenopsis and eucalyptus in an Astier de Villatte vase was one of my favorites. And simple enough to accomplish on my own.*

*Rice flower, corn flower, foliage in an Astier de Villatte vase*

By the end of the class, I felt comfortable enough to call myself a florist. (After all, Gaita, who attended one class in New York, also considers herself self-taught.)

Soon my calling card (and LinkedIn profile, natch) will get an update. Instead of Publisher, it will read—in bold font—floral artist/lady of leisure.