Zita Elze’s approach to floristry is not easy to classify. She acknowledges a distaste for following rules and recipes and instead uses “emotion” to create her designs. “My inspiration for particular jobs comes from the discussion between myself and the client,” she says. “I need to grasp that moment somewhere in the conversation where the idea is transmitted.”
Whatever her method, she’s clearly able to coax the muse to descend for her without any trouble. She has been called the “doyenne of floral chic” by Fusion Flowers’ Alison Bradley and her unique style has taken the world of floristry by storm. In 2009 her first installation at Chelsea won a Silver Gilt Medal, and she has since been picked up by many of the key lifestyle, wedding and floral design magazines in the UK.
Brazilian-born Zita has been in the world of art and design for some time – but only began in floristry fairly recently.“Many years ago, I studied bookbinding in Paris and took a one-month professional floristry course there,” she says. “And when I came to London I studied interior design at the KLC School of Design and afterwards at Inchbald, first for a two-month course in garden design, but I liked it so much I did the whole diploma.” Zita graduated with a distinction and then decided to open a shop as a showcase for her designs – the floristry followed soon after. “I’ve always loved flowers but I’d never worked in a flower shop before,” she says. “I did a one month intensive course to learn the technical aspects, but for the design side I felt I had a vision that I needed to follow.”
Her style has been described as “painting with flowers” and “floral embroidery.” “The term ‘painting with flowers’ comes from the movement of the hand-tied and how it spins in the air,” she says. “A photographer friend came to see me one day and he was amazed at how quickly I put a bouquet together.” The photographs he took capture a blurry, impressionistic record of Zita at work. They give you an idea of the speed and precision of how she creates her art, but with such an individualistic style – and one that throws rulebooks out of the window – is this something she can teach to others?
