Informed by European aesthetics and a bohemian spontaneity, floral designer Ariella Chezar creates arrangements the old-fashioned way
When I first saw Ariella Chezar’s flower arrangements, I was drawn to her style right away—a seemingly effortless way of arranging, and yet, so chic. She started her business 15 years ago and rapidly became a regular in numerous lifestyle publications (including this one) and a featured designer in her industry. After speaking with Ariella several times on the phone, I learned she is as lovely and effortless as her designs.
Can tell us about your first experiences with flowers?
I was studying classical voice when I happened to stop by a family friend’s flower studio as she was preparing to do a wedding. Pamela Hardcastle, an extraordinary landscape and floral designer, had her studio filled with the most exceptional selection of flowers I had ever seen—every flower shop paled in comparison to the splendor I saw there. In that moment it occurred to me that here was a job that allowed for creativity—the chance to work with color, texture, and form—and a huge wedding industry that offered the possibility to make a living doing all of the above. I was hooked immediately. The idea that you could be surrounded by beauty every day while being involved with celebrations, that creating beauty was the gist of this job description, it just seemed too good to be true.
How did your background influence and help you develop your newfound love into a career?
My mother was Dutch, an artist of multiple mediums. Everything she touched became an extension of her creative self. Growing up in Holland, I spent a lot of time with her art school friends and developed a huge appreciation for nature and the beauty that naturally occurs in it. I suspect the combination of being in Holland, where flowers are so prevalent, and breathing in the lifestyle of all these bohemian, creative people factored in considerably to what interests me and inspires me today.
Did you have any formal training or just jump right in?
I never trained formally but worked with Pamela Hardcastle and my friend, Barbara Bockbrader, another garden/floral designer. After about a year and a half of working with them, I decided to move to the West Coast on a whim, first to San Francisco and then to Berkeley. [She also worked with legendary party planner and floral guru Robert Isabell before moving to California.] So many of the beautiful things that came through the New York market—garden roses, fruit on the stem, vines, etc.—came from the West Coast, so I assumed that was a good place to start my business—which, indeed, it was. Within a year of moving to California, I started my business and haven’t stopped since.
How has your style developed over the years? Its loose, romantic feel — has it always been this natural?
In the beginning, I was doing either messy garden arrangements or dense, full ones. I’ve always been drawn to natural groupings of flowers, but at first I didn’t really understand how to put them together. When I moved to the Bay Area, I learned a lot from seeing how vines intermingled over walls and fences—passion vine, honeysuckle, akebia, ivy, and wild clematis, to name a few. I saw Santa Rosa plum trees laden with little, round fruits tumbling over fences. There were lemon trees heavy with fruit and roses. Oh, the roses! They grow so abundantly and happily in Berkeley.
The feeling of abundance, lightness, a natural lushness, and ease—this is what appeals to me in an arrangement and what I always try to achieve. And color, of course! I love combining super-sweet colored flowers with deeper, dark foliage, thereby cutting that sweetness and sharpening things up.
