ABOUT US
La Grande Beauté
La Grande Beauté was founded in London in 2019, which makes it young for a house and, by the standards of florists, already rather settled in its ways. The ways are the point. A shop sells what it happens to have; a house has a manner of doing things and keeps to it for long enough that people recognise it across a room.
Founded
London, 2019
Young for a house, and already settled in its ways.
Signature
The round velvet box
Turquoise at first, and in several colours now.
Every morning
Made, then photographed
Flowers chosen by hand before dawn; every piece seen by Erika before it leaves.
The box
The first thing the house made
Ours begins with a round velvet box, turquoise at first and in several colours now, with the flowers composed as a single surface so that the whole reads as one piece. It was the first thing the house made and it is still what the house is known for. Around it has grown a collection with names rather than numbers — Belle Époque, Velvet Hour, Riviera — because a house names its work, and because a name tells you more about a palette than a list of stems ever could.
The eye
An accessories designer, still
The eye behind all of this belongs to Erika, who trained in fashion accessories before she turned to flowers and has never quite stopped thinking like an accessories designer: she will check the outline of an arrangement against the table it is going to before she says a word about the flowers.
The temperament
Ours is cheerful
A house also has a temperament, and ours is cheerful. Every October the boxes fill with ivory pumpkins, porcelain skulls and pearls, and in December the collection turns to Christmas, with pieces made for the hall and the dining table. The rest of the year belongs to roses, to the quieter palettes that most of life calls for, and to a teddy bear made of flowers for new babies. Everything is made on the morning it is sent, from flowers chosen by hand before dawn, and photographed before it leaves.
Most of it is then given away by someone else, which is the part of the work we like best. We are, when it comes down to it, in the business of other people’s generosity, and it is a good business to be in.
La Grande Beauté · London
