“I am a color fanatic,” says LaParis Phillips, when I tell her this issue of Margot is centered on color.
She didn’t need to say it, though—her obsession is evident from the moment you spot the flower-covered “B” in the Brooklyn Blooms logo.
LaParis is the woman behind this blooming empire, with two stores across Brooklyn and counting. Behind the logo lies a world built on color: from the multicolored mood board that forms her Zoom backdrop to the floral arrangements she dreams up daily.
“I have a color-blocking mind,” she adds, when I comment on how her riot of color somehow coordinates rather than clashes.
LaParis supported herself working in a flower shop while studying fashion at Stephens College in her home state of Missouri. Even then, her instinct for blending creativity and commerce ran deep—her family owned a balloon shop when she was growing up.
“It worked out,” she says simply. On the shop floor, both in college and childhood, she picked up a second craft—one that would eventually become her calling.
By 2015, five years into life in New York and still searching for her place in fashion, she was spending weekends arranging flowers in a Manhattan shop. When her boyfriend at the time unhappy about her lack of free time and asked her to choose between floristry and the relationship, she didn’t hesitate.
She chose flowers—with his blessing. “He even told me it was a great name for the business!”
Today, stepping into one of her stores means walking into a full-sensory experience: vibrant blooms pop against brightly painted walls, music hums, and the scent of fresh green stems fills the air.
For Margot, LaParis assembled what she called “a standard grab-and-go” bouquet. But one look at the final product proves otherwise: a lush, kaleidoscopic arrangement anchored by vivid green foliage—anything but ordinary.
“Brooklyn doesn’t influence my work; I influence my work—and Brooklyn fits my personality,” she says. “I landed in the right place.”
Like LaParis herself, Brooklyn Blooms is bold, dynamic, and joyful—whether in person, online, or on its spirited Instagram account, where flowers share the spotlight with fashion and music. “Flowers are the inspiration for all kinds of art,” she says.
When I ask her favorite color, she doesn’t hesitate. “Green,” she says. “Green is always my starting point. Green is where a garden begins.”
It’s a fitting anchor. The walls of her flagship store—where we did our shoot—begin in shades of green, but as you step into the back workroom, they give way to purples, pinks, and yellows, like petals radiating out from a set of green stems. “Color means I’m able to be myself, to express myself,” she tells me. “Color allows me to speak without words.”
LaParis Phillips is more than a brilliant florist and businesswoman—she is, unmistakably, a color fanatic. She communicates through color in every bouquet, wall, and digital frame. Brooklyn wouldn’t bloom quite as brightly without her.