“When it comes to arrangements, people freeze up and are completely stymied,” says interior designer Charlotte Moss. “Really, it’s all about creating your own style. In life, it’s most important to surround ourselves with beautiful things.” (Photo: Brittany Ambridge)
Charlotte Moss wants you to relax and stop worrying— at least when it comes to curating florals in the home. As the celebrated tastemaker expresses in her new book, Charlotte Moss: Flowers, published by Rizzoli this April, when thinking about arrangements, it’s time to throw the rulebook out the window. “Flowers need not be formal,” says Moss. “It can be as easy as walking by the local grocer or going into your garden. Really it’s about the personal and what moves you.”
Moss is, of course, known for her sophisticated interiors, but she says,“there’s an informality to a lot of it— relaxed and comfortable, yet elegant at the same time.” And that’s exactly her approach to blooms, a passion which began as far back as she can remember. “I was drawn to them because of my maternal grandmother,” she says. “The house always smelled divine, because flowers were just part of her life. So, of course, I followed suit.”
One part unconventional manual (there are no rules) and one part motivational musings of past icons (think Bunny Mellon and Pauline de Rothschild), Moss’s compilation emphasizes that composition should reflect personality and highlight the innate beauty of the blossom—no matter the type. For example, a few cabbage roses tucked into a small vase on a bookshelf look just as beautiful as a large centerpiece. “I go out and poke around the garden and just pick a few flowers that somebody might not even think of,” she says. “But it’s an arrangement to me.”
Above all, florals are meant to bring joy, and what sparks happiness varies from person to person. “Experiment,” Moss advises. “The greatest things come about as a result of being confident and a little fearless and saying, ‘It’s my house and I’m doing what I please.’”
