“It’s a mystery how I ended up in floral design,” says Patricia Pastelero, who studied textile development and marketing at FIT in New York. She would do “a bit of flower arranging for myself” at home and upon returning to Manila, started selling arrangements one Valentine’s Day. This 29-year-old runs her own boutique firm Spruce Floral Designs, where she elevates blooms to a contemporary art form. Her detailed arrangements integrate lush flowers and non-floral elements with a restrained, elegant style. Marketing mainly through word of mouth has led to event styling, which also showcases her passion for paper crafts, popular these days for vintage-themed weddings and children’s parties. For one project she tracked down the maker of the native pastillas wrapper designs and translated this into pretty pastel hangings.
Her clean and fresh aesthetic has caught the eye of equally tasteful clients, with whom she collaborates for weddings and other celebrations. As she ventures into small-scale display and design work, the future certainly looks rosy for Patricia. The day of the YStyle shoot she had been up until 5 a.m., working on a first-time venture into a retail setup for a still-under-wraps Christmas window.
YSTYLE: How did your background prepare you for doing floral design?
PAT PASTELERO: I did a summer internship at Target and worked there after graduation. It was a great experience working for a large, well-organized and highly successful corporation. I got to work with the design teams of Isaac Mizrahi and Liz Lange to come up with different fabrics and textiles for their collection. The whole process was so interesting, from working on colors two years ahead, fabric a year and a half, developing next season’s styles, and then tracking what’s working and what isn’t for the current collections. I took a few short courses at The Flower School of New York as well every time I would be there for vacation.
What makes your style distinct?
How simple yet very detailed the arrangements are. My arrangements are full and lush and a lot of care is taken in composing each one. We usually incorporate a number of non-floral elements, too, like twigs, orchid roots, cacti and herbs into our arrangements.
How do you like to do bridal bouquets?
I do mostly full, lush bouquets with a lot of texture. I do very clean looks, too, like all cymbidium or all rose bouquets. If the budget permits, then I do bouquets with multiple flower types so there’s more texture and it’s visually more interesting.
What are the new directions in bouquets?
Non-floral elements have always been popular... shells, berries, etc. This year and last though there were a lot of brides requesting vintage elements like paper and fabric pinwheels, cranes and buttons to add to their bouquets. It’s a very whimsical and fun look. For more traditional brides looking for a vintage touch, I like to do a lace handkerchief for the handle.
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Spruce Floral Designs is at 423 Adalla St., Palm Village, Makati. Contact 0917-8836046 or 519-2937 or visit www.sprucefloraldesigns.com.
Rules for your bridal bouquet
Pat says brides should consider their overall look when they pick out a bouquet. She gives three tips.
1. The size and cut of the dress will also determine the size and shape of your bouquet. A bigger skirt should have a bigger bouquet. A slimmer-cut dress should have a smaller bouquet.
2. The bouquet should complement the bride’s overall look, not overpower or steal the show. Although it should also be interesting enough to stand on its own.
3. It’s best to do simpler and cleaner bouquets and monochromatic colors when the bride’s dress has a lot of design elements.