Former Victoria’s Secret Model Frederique van der Wal Now Creates Beautiful Zodiac-Themed Bouquets
Van der Wal in the fall. Photo: Courtesy
There are several career paths that we tend to associate with former fashion models: beauty, home or clothing design, acting, philanthropy. But Frederique van der Wal—a Dutch model who, in the late ‘80s and ‘90s, graced the covers of Vogue and Cosmopolitan and starred in campaigns for Revlon and Victoria’s Secret—has chosen to go in a much sweeter smelling direction: The floral industry.
“Being born in Holland, the seed was planted right there and then,” she explains, no pun intended. “Everything in Holland is very flower-centric, wherever you look—in houses, flower beds, everywhere—so it’s always been an intricate part of my upbringing.” But van der Wal really caught the flower bug back in 2005, after her home country of Holland chose to honor her with a namesake lily.
Three years later, she launched Frederique’s Choice—a lifestyle e-commerce brand offering handcrafted, locally sourced floral bouquets and arrangements across Europe. And now, Frederique’s Choice is taking on the U.S. market for the first time, beginning with the East Coast.
Van der Wal carries a Frederique’s Choice bouquet. Photo: Courtesy
Though van der Wal isn’t a formally trained horticulturalist (”I have green-tinted fingers!” she says), there’s something very special about her arrangements. They’re a bit wilder than the average bouquet, with lush blooms blossoming over the course of several days, and minty eucalyptus sprigs sticking out here and there in a very organic, almost deconstructed way. The color schemes have a certain ease to them—a skill van der Wal picked up from her years spent in the fashion industry. And all the packaging is eco-friendly, including the biodegradable vase and the reusable tote the flowers arrive in.
(Speaking of the tote, it’s glorious. My co-workers were fascinated by it when they first saw me carrying my own Frederique’s Choice bouquet into the office. Later, I used it to carry and protect my flowers on a flight to Massachusetts. “I saw somebody the other day with it on a bike!” van der Wal told me, excitedly. I love that freaking tote.)
But the pièces de résistance of Frederique’s Choice is undoubtedly its Horoscope Bouquets, designed to aesthetically suit each sign of the zodiac. It’s a fun, creative way to switch up the standard gift of sending flowers, and makes it a whole lot easier to choose which arrangement to purchase.
Frederique’s Choice Horoscope bouquets, top left-right: Aquarius, Aries, Cancer, Capricorn, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Pisces, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Taurus, Virgo.
“We know that some people are more attracted to certain colors than others, and a few years ago, I read that even flowers fit with certain [zodiac] signs,” van der Wal says. She went on to create twelve distinct arrangements, each meant to represent and appeal to the different signs. My Taurus bouquet was bursting with white Madonna lilies, calla lilies, and roses. “Certain signs are easy to design, and others, I’m still fighting over,” she says. The model was most challenged in creating the Scorpio bouquet, due to its inherent moodiness. “Scorpio, as a sign, is much stronger and darker, so you need to have a bit of an accent to lift it up.”
In the future, she hopes to collaborate with an astrologist and offer horoscopes along with the flowers. And down the road, she’d love for Frederique’s Choice to sell plant bulbs, candles, and modern housewares. But in the meantime, she’ll be appearing on an upcoming reality show with A&E on the FYI channel, Home Grown Makeover, which sees New York apartments getting green re-dos.
“The message I like is that flowers should be part of our life everyday,” van der Wal says, sincerely. “They have an effect on you, they make you much happier; it’s healthy. They’ve done research on how important it is for us to live with nature, and flowers are probably the easiest and most affordable way to bring that into your home. You can’t bring in a whole garden!”
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