Flora

Caroline Bailly has had a professional presence in the floral industry for the last 15 years, however the ease with which she manipulates and employs the materials of her trade—whether thick bundles of vibrant stems from Manhattan’s flower market, freshly-cut globes of peonies from her own garden, or a tangle of blooms spontaneously picked from somewhere, anywhere—hints at a much deeper, more personal connection.

And indeed, that connection is almost an intrinsic one. Bailly grew up in the eastern French city of Besançon, surrounded by verdant hills and fields that practically explode with colorful blankets of sprightly flowers during the warmer months. Childhood walks through the countryside with her mother, a botanist, became foundational courses in floristics and plant identification, while the story of how her grandparents first met—knee-deep, in a local field of wildflowers—has taken on a mythical-like quality. Flora has practically spun its way into her DNA.

Buunch, her floral delivery and special-events company, is Bailly’s professional expression of this lifelong skillset, and perhaps more visibly, her own effortless pursuit of beauty through the natural world, however humble or everyday-seeming. All of it an extension of her own daily rhythms, habitudes, and love for the sensorial pleasures of her surroundings. Naturally.

I find inspiration for my work in nature—a lot. And walking in the street, looking at people, and what they’re wearing. And art, too. I’m very color and texture-oriented, I think. It’s how I usually start my design process.