05 Dec Horti couture: Step into the wild world of Cape Town’s Cosmia flower studio

“I’ve worked as a florist for the last three years, training at Lush Flowers in Cape Town. I still freelance but wanted space to make work and do projects that are more aligned with my own aesthetics, and that allow me to do more creative, exploratory projects,” says Chelsea Blakemore about how Cosmia floral design studio started.

• READ So sprung! Cape Town florists talk the art of contemporary flower design

Launched earlier this year in Cape Town, the studio is garnering public attention with its arrangements that go between quirky minimalism to thoughtfully OTT.

With a strong focus on the concept of “world-building, of creating spaces that are all-encompassing, that make own little universes for characters to exist in”, Cosmia creates strong and aesthetically arresting arrangements and floral-infused scenarios. This comes in the form of set design, instillations and floral styling for shoots and events, to name a few. 

“What I enjoy making is probably more at the intersection of instillation, art direction and set-design and flowers are just the medium I’ve chosen to explore that. I come from a family of interior designers, and I see a lot of overlap between what they do and what I do — but I’m interested in fantasy and narrative, and want to create fictional spaces, instead of real, practical ones,” says Chelsea.

“I’ve been doing a bunch of floral styling for shoots recently which has been wonderful — whilst often on a smaller scale, it hits the sweet spot for me.”