There's no better day of the year to celebrate the creativity, skills, and successes of female floral designers than on International Women's Day. IWD is largely stimulated through shopping at women-owned businesses and through raising funds or resources for organizations that support women. On March 8th, the world puts the emphasis on appreciation, celebrating women’s achievements, and showing continuous support.
15 Female Floral Designers in the Spotlight
International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. Significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality. Every year, this day is celebrated and promoted through a theme that reflects current important topics in society. The campaign for IWD 2021 is centered around #ChoosetoChallenge. In honor of this, it's time to share 15 female floral designers from around the world with you who choose to challenge themselves every day.
Sarah Campbell, United States
Sarah Campbell is a renowned wedding expert having launched multiple wedding businesses, based in Annapolis, Maryland. She is a luxury wedding florist by trade with a heart for sharing. She designs flowers for couples in a way that sets the stage for a lifetime of memories.
"Flowers are my focus and bringing weddings to life loaded with beautiful blooms is my passion. Working with me is like working with a friend that is as excited about your wedding flowers as you are. We will laugh, we will design, and we will create a wedding loaded with flowers that is truly unique to you and your family."
Sarah Campbell from Hattie Molloy, Australia
Melbourne-based female floral designer Hattie Molloy's contemporary art practice encompasses facets of floristry, installation, and object making as ways of finding beauty in the contemporary landscape. Hattie’s use of floral arrangement is an energetic and cacophonous outward deluge forming sprawling installations, whilst retreating indoors and buttering the events and stores of ‘Melbourne’ and ‘Australia’ more broadly. Her strong affinity with photography and the still-life ensures her vision proliferates globally. Her work has been featured in Vogue, GQ, Vice, and The Design Files.
Natalia Zhizhko, Russia
Natalia Zhizhko is a multi-awarded florist, teacher, and demonstrator and is the CEO, Creative Director Tridvornova art-bureau. Although Natalia is based in Russia she was born and brought up in Estonia and now works all over the world teaching and demonstrating. She loves to travel and it is through her travels that she finds inspiration for much of her work. The key thing about Natalia is her personality. Talented, strong-willed, charismatic. Vigorous. Beautiful. And her work is the same. They unite fantasy and pinpoint accuracy, large scale, and air, power, and tenderness. If you thoroughly study her arrangements, you can understand Natalia. Or better, observe the process of arranging at her workshops or shows. Fall in love with floristry and come to understand that there are no secrets. There is only indefatigable industry and talent. Watch and gain inspiration!
Gabriela Salazar, Mexico
Taking flowers as her muse, Gabriela Salazar looks to nature as an ever-inspiring source of creativity for her floral design studio La Musa de las Flores. High in the Mexican mountains, in a small town two hours from Mexico City, the florist grows a delicate cut flower garden for her romantic arrangements that echo the relationship between design and nature. Gabriela wasn't always interested in flower arrangements, but after she moved to London to study Architectural Interiors, the designer fell in love with the colorful array of florals at the New Covent Garden Flower Market. Now the florist lives in Valle de Bravo, after relocating from Mexico City, seeking a tranquil location to grow flowers and be surrounded by nature. For a more extensive interview, read our article Her Name Is Gabriela Salazar, Founder of La Musa de Las Flores.
Josefien Goethals, Belgium
Josefien Goethals is the creative centipede behind MiFleur. She is a florist and stylist, a true floral artist. With MiFleur she aims to tell stories through flowers.
We are crazy about flowers, crazy about the seasons & crazy about people’s stories. We are happy to tell your story, whisper with flowers and greenery. Tailored to your size and to the rhythm of nature, as sustainable as possible. We work to measure and listen to what you are looking for.
Angelica Lacarbonara, Italy
Angelica Lacarbonara has besides a great flower shop in Martina Franca in Italy, also a floral design school; Agorà Fashion Flowers. She invites renowned teachers to come over to Italy to give classes. People like Leopoldo Gomez, Tom de Houwer, Moniek Vanden Berghe, and others. She also gives classes herself. From basic training to very specified courses, there are many different types of classes. Angelica also teaches online and provides webinars. Angelica is convinced a florist has to keep on learning throughout their professional life and educate themselves. It is a continuous process and never-ending. For a florist ‘education is food for the soul’.
Halima, United States
Halima is a bride turned event designer, who started The Floral Guru in 2017 after her own dream wedding. She is obsessed with floral design and marketing and loves to teach both to fellow designers. With The Floral Guru, she makes dreams come true. Beginning with an empty space and a vision, Halima and her team combine artistry, expertise, and passion to create once-in-a-lifetime events. The Floral Guru has become synonymous with unique & stylish weddings and events! Their portfolio includes some of the most trend-setting and luxurious weddings in Washington, D.C. and her work has been recognized globally.
Katya Hutter, The Netherlands
Katya Hutter is a floral designer based in Amsterdam, specialized in creating luxury and artistic floral decors for private clients, weddings & events, and the fashion industry. Her style is lush, nature-inspired, abundant, and surprising. Katya believes that nature inspires better designs, it’s a source of great inspiration for her. She received her training in Aalsmeer, Netherlands, in the very heart of the world’s floral industry and has received private lessons and masterclasses from a brilliant Japanese florist Atsushi Taniguchi in his flower school in Paris.
Christina Campbell, United States
Christina Campbell is the driving force behind Farmgirl Flowers, an eComm flower shop that she launched in 2010 from her tiny apartment in San Francisco.
“We’re an eComm flower that’s created a brand spankin’ new model to completely change the way people purchase flowers. We create one daily arrangement using 100% American grown flowers, which not only supports American flower farmers, but reduces our flower waste by about 40%, allowing us to offer designer-quality arrangements at generic eComm prices. And we’ve created an aesthetic and brand that people love, right down to our trademarked burlap wrap—which repurposes coffee sacks donated by local roasters.” - Christina Campbell in Vanity Fair
Frida Kim, United Kingdom
Design, beauty, art, nature, and fashion have always inspired her. For many years, Frida Kim ran her own custom jewelry business in Seoul. After moving to London she fell in love with English winter gardens and the beauty of English flowers. Frida's curiosity and passion took over her life. She has had the fortune to learn from great teachers who shared their wisdom and skills with her.
Alina Neacsa, Romania
Alina Neacsa is a flower designer for premium events, a floral design trainer, a writer for the my dream garden magazine (monthly edited in +15,000 copies) and constant subject for articles in national and international media. Alina Neacsa discovered her talent and passion for floral arrangements after a long chain of disappointments in the quality of services delivered by the florists she was working with. Lacking the support of qualified floral designers in Romania, Alina started using her own floral decorations for the events she organized. In her quest to improve her creations and to achieve higher quality standards, she attended formal training courses in London. In time, Alina became a recognized floral designer, that developed her own spectacular style characterized by elegance and usage of innovative flower combinations.
Mary Lennox, Germany
Berlin-based studio specializing in flower styling, botanical set design, and consultancy. Founded by Ruby Barber, Mary Lennox is named after the protagonist of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel The Secret Garden, a story that celebrates the beauty, mystery, and rejuvenating qualities of nature. By chance, Ruby’s first studio also found itself on the corner of Mary and Lennox Streets in Sydney, Australia. The same building housed her father’s first photography studio and her mother’s first art gallery.
Lisa-Maria Thalmayr, Austria
Lisa-Maria Thalmayr is an artist and international floral designer based in Salzburg, Austria. Her work is inspired and influenced by nature. With her trade LIS ART she’s working in various fields. As a trend florist, she is experimenting with new techniques and design visions. She is teaching students on their way to becoming floral designers and also weekly courses with themes like Selflove and Meditation. With the Artist Collective ‘Follow the Circle’ she is working on current projects, combining photography and floral design.
Yamile Bulos, Mexico
Yamile Bulos is a flower designer based in Mexico but working abroad. She owns a degree in Marketing and Communications but the future had something much better prepared for her: Flowers! Certified as a Floral Designer by the London Flower School, Yamile has traveled a very odd and interesting journey in the world of flowers. Yamile can literally turn the ordinary into the extraordinary! Although her passion is massive installations and events, she really enjoys making arrangements and bouquets for any special occasion. She always takes life itself as inspiration, artists, paintings, interior design, art in general, and nature. Besides this, the special touch of her work is that it’s always done with tons of love and passion, which has led her to be who she is today.
Hitomi Gilliam, Canada
Hitomi Gilliam AIFD is a Japanese Canadian floral artist, keynote lecturer, demonstrator, educator and a consultant in all aspects of the Art and Business of Floral Design. She is the Creative Director for DESIGN358 (2008). She has guest-designed extensively throughout North America, England, Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, Bermuda, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Belgium, Korea and India. She owned and operated Satsuki’s Florist in Mission, British Columbia for 28 years. She currently works with her son, Colin Gilliam in an Event & Education business, DESIGN358 which was established 8 years ago.
