Forget everything you thought you knew about florals. The trend for fall is all about breaking the rules. We’re loving pieces that push the boundaries of what’s real, pretty, and natural. And no one understands that better than Kyle Branch. The artist and floral designer, also known as Peaches, looks at each design as a way to spark conversation.
“I use heavily synthetic things, weirder things,” he says. “I was always interested in the sculpture aspect of floral. I like experimenting with asymmetry and making things more available for response in the room.”
Just Peachy
This past May, beloved Dallas fashion institution Forty Five Ten launched a floral program with Branch as artistic director. President and chief creative officer Kristin Cole tapped the floral designer, who has created floral installations for the store for the last three years, to help create a catalog of designs that represent the elevated aesthetic of the downtown retail space. The collaboration makes sense, seeing as the new trends in floral are mimicking what’s happening on the runway and in the store—monochromatic buds in vibrant hues, sculptural shapes, unexpected pairings, and lessons in minimalism.
“We wanted to explore something chic and synonymous with Forty Five Ten,” Branch says. They came up with four distinct series—Hyper-Synthetic, Tonal, Artists’ Series, and En Masse (see our slideshow for examples)—and designed arrangements that fit in each. Branch mixes classics like peonies, alliums, and roses with his eccentric obsessions, including red lacquered anthurium, shiny Mylar, neon cholla wood, dyed feathers, and hand-painted electric blue branches.
(Designs start at $85. Delivery available.)
A Force of Nature on Travis Street
Grange Hall has evolved from a small gift shop to a destination for jewelry, fashion finds, and high-end tabletop. And with that, its floral department has also morphed into the go-to for the avant-garde set, thanks to the talents of Lauren Lightfoot. For the past 10 years, Lightfoot has created artful arrangements inspired by nature that utilize Grange Hall owners Rajan Patel’s and Jeffrey Lee’s finds and curiosities. Think crystals, painted coral, quill feathers, and acrylic sculptures placed in one-of-a-kind vessels like antique porcelain figurines and hollowed-out turtle shells. “It’s not that flowers aren’t beautiful enough on their own,” she says. “But when you can add a porcupine quill, just to highlight the beauty that is already there, it goes a long way.”
Lightfoot and her team can customize anything, but we love popping in for a last-minute hostess gift or birthday present from the selection of grab-and-go succulents and orchids. And if you think these plants are passé, Lightfoot’s mission is to keep them fresh and fun. “I like to challenge ourselves to keep reinventing what we’re doing,” she says. (Designs start at $60. Delivery available.)
About Vase
Adam and Alicia Rico, husband and wife owners of floral design studio Bows + Arrows, were looking for a very specific type of vase for their wedding clientele (which includes stars like Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner, and Kacey Musgraves). “We had been dreaming up different vessel designs and could not find exactly what we wanted on the market,” Alicia says. “Even a simple low bowl to fill with flowers that was glazed on the inside and earthen on the outside was impossible.”
So they created Rico Terre, a line of earthy and romantic vases, bowls, candle tapers, and floral frogs, each one handmade out of Texas terra cotta or white armadillo clay. Fill up the Holy Bowl with seasonal stems for an Instagram-worthy look.
