With a New Installation at the Opéra Garnier in Paris, Fashion’s Favorite Florist, Eric Chauvin, Is in Full Bloom
Photography: Cyrille George Jerusalmi
The term “flower power” takes on new meaning when you’re talking about Eric Chauvin, the man behind the famous bloom-decked rooms created for former Dior creative director Raf Simons’s couture debut for the luxury house back in 2012 (he used 1 million fresh flowers). Chauvin’s discerning green fingers were also behind Dior’s Provençal-scented show set three years later — a flower-covered mountain created using 40,000 delphiniums in shades from sky to midnight blue — and the nuptials of Charlene Wittstock and Prince Albert II of Monaco in 2011. (The in-demand florist also designs the blooms for the yearly Rose Ball in the region, which is being held this week, on March 19.)
The designer was raised on a farm in Anjou in northwestern France, where he grew his own flowers as a teen. After studying horticulture and plant culture, he enrolled in a floristry course before embarking on a series of apprenticeships with leading lights in artisan floristry in Paris, like Christian Tortu and Georges François. He opened his first flower shop — Un Jour de Fleurs, in Paris’s tony Seventh Arrondissement — in 2000. Dior’s worldwide communications director, Olivier Bialobos, then director of KCD Paris, introduced Chauvin to the world of fashion.
Recently, at his second store in Paris’s business district Neuilly-sur-Seine, Chauvin was elbow-deep in white roses, preparing a last-minute commission for the opening of a new Dior spa at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée Paris (this time he was using a mere 10,000 stems). Wearing Dior jeans and a Moncler vest, with his wrists stacked with chunky chain bracelets by Hermès, Chrome Hearts and Gucci, Chauvin stripped leaves off the rose stems and talked to Yahoo Style about what it means to live a life where you’re literally always taking time to smell the roses.
Yahoo Style: Tell us about your latest project at the Opéra Garnier in Paris, for the Les Amis de l’Opéra foundation, presided over by Madame François Pinault.
Eric Chauvin: I love the Opéra Garnier so much; being invited to embellish the grand staircase is always such an honor. This time it’s for The Nutcracker, so we’ve dreamt up the idea of a Russian landscape under snow. I’m going to be working with light branches, catkins, and lichen to create the impression of an interior forest, with little sprigs of gypsophila, like mist.
Who is the most inspiring designer you’ve worked with?
Raf Simons is deeply passionate about garden flowers, and he’s incredibly sensitive. In just a few words he manages to communicate precisely the direction he wants to go in.
What are some of the flowers linked to fashion houses?
Dior is known for the rose and the lily of the valley. Yves Saint Laurent always liked richly scented flowers like lilies, jasmine, hyacinths, and sometimes roses. He preferred pure bouquets. Sometimes flowers are linked to a collection, like I just did these floral garlands for the house of Valentino’s couture collection in January. The idea was to reflect the collection, which had this retro, 1800s feel, with a contrast of prints and forms, but was also slightly futuristic. I worked with a foliage base sprinkled with lilies and the occasional poppy, and these shooting branches of magnolia in flower that were 2 to 3 meters high.
What have you brought to the world of floral design?
I would say my gardener approach to the bouquet. It has to be as natural as possible; each branch, each flower has its own unique form, its natural aspect that you have to respect while bringing in contrasts. I’m known for my generous bouquets. I’m a bit of a romantic.
Do you have a favorite flower?
I love peonies and violet. It’s so delicate and sweetly perfumed.
Do you have a favorite garden?
Monet’s garden at Giverny. It’s so beautiful throughout the seasons. I also love the parks in Asia, especially Japan, with its maple trees and cherry blossoms. I love the combination of Zen and adventure and the contrast with the lushness of the English garden, which I also love. I like to be somewhere in between. I like to study the balance of the volume and proportion of plants and trees with other elements in the garden. The same goes for my bouquets, mixing voluminous flowers with ultra-delicate flowers, contrasting sophisticated flowers with garden flowers.
And what about inspirations?
Fashion, art, and the countryside. I love looking at the roses in old books and then trying to find flowers that resemble varieties from the past, and looking at depictions of floral bouquets in Renaissance paintings. Sometimes I’ll see a flower right at the top of a bouquet that in real life is, like, 10 centimeters, and I’ll say to myself, “They had a lot of imagination!”
What flowers are in vogue at the moment?
It changes all the time. At the moment monochrome bouquets are in, a bit like the flowers I recently did for Coach and the Row, with a slight meadow mood but not too rustic, very light.
Do guests ever dare to bring you flowers when they come to your house?
Never. [Laughs.]
