Flower Power: Lana Elie is Bringing Fashion to Floristry
This piece was originally published on WAH TALK.
Not many people would risk leaving a high-level career in fashion to set up their own business, but Lana Elie has proven that the grass is greener on the other side, you just have to plant the seed.
With a career that started out at Burberry and led to roles with Marc Jacobs, Gucci and i-D, Lana worked at the forefront of creative and digital revolutions in the fashion industry, creating high profile campaigns that were seen by millions. But there was always something missing.
“Whilst I worked with some amazingly talented people the lack of opportunity to express my own pure creative vision became increasingly frustrating,” she says candidly.
Born in Paris and raised in Bali, Lana has always had a love for plants and flowers and thus Floom was created, a “passionately crafted, meticulously curated expression of my true love - offering the gift of flowers in all their natural glory”.
From Raf Simons’ walls of flowers at his début Dior show, to Alexander McQueen’s iconic fresh flower dress in S/S ’07, the rosy relationship between fashion and flowers has been forever blooming. It’s no surprise then that Lana wanted to nurture this relationship with Floom, a digital platform that delivers perfect posies right to your door.
Launched last month, Floom is bringing floristry to the forefront, and Lana's experience in the fashion industry is evident, as the company combines striking bouquets, stunning visuals and luxury craftsmanship in a stylish site of seasonal blooms. Florals for spring? Groundbreaking (but this time we actually mean it) - floristry has never been so fashion.
“We focus on seasonal blooms and only work with local florists who we feel offer a premium product and a unique identity,” Lana explains, for her, this is a huge part of the project.
With Floom, Lana stresses her support for local businesses as well as her passion to help increase not only the appreciation of floristry as an art form, but the prosperity of the community.
“Provenance, heritage and craftsmanship all exist in the flower-world but they are currently so, so undervalued. We hope to change the perception people have, whilst also supporting these small-scale businesses and artisans who have devoted their lives to their craft.”
In setting up Floom, Lana is also devoting her life to the business, proving that she’s anything but a wallflower when it comes to making her dreams a reality. It can’t have been easy, but she isn’t looking back.
“Of course there have been moments where it all feels very scary, but these are always drowned out by a hundred more amazing moments as everything begins to come together. It’s all been much more liberating than it has been scary,” she says. "Ultimately, if you have a dream to do something, and you can’t imagine wanting to do anything else, then just go for it. It's surprising how much people want to help you when you're following your dream.”
That dream is now a reality, and although the service isn’t UK-wide as of yet, Lana hopes to expand fairly quickly.
“If all goes to plan you should be able to order our beautiful bouquets in a few major European cities by the end of the year.”
A girlboss that uses her business to combine flower power with girl power will always get us excited at WAH and we can’t wait to watch this one blossom.