Lewis Miller Design and the Magic of Extraordinary Floral Design
Lewis Miller Design and the Magic of Extraordinary Floral Design
Elaborate and wonderous arrangements of colorful fresh flowers began appearing around New York City in 2016 and the power of the unexpected and social media quickly brought the name Lewis Miller Design (LMD) into the mainstream spotlight. If you live in NYC or take pleasure in scrolling on social media then there is a good chance you have seen one of LMD’s striking Flower Flashes. Perhaps a flowing garland of extraordinary blooms draped around a statue in Central Park. Or a surprise bouquet of sumptuous flowers bursting out of the top of a city trash can. And if you haven’t then you must! At Lh we are so in love with LMD and their stunning creations that we are thrilled to be sharing a bit about their company and some of their beautiful work here with you.
Creating extraordinarily gorgeous settings for weddings and parties is Lewis Miller Design’s forte and a pure love for flowers is at their core. The company incorporates its founder, Lewis Miller’s, passion for flowers, love for quality, the curious, and the antiquated, along with his outstanding talent for attention to detail, and ability to dazzle all who lay eyes on his creations into each of their projects. From their East Village studio, they mastermind memorable experiences that feel natural and effortless while simultaneously fantastical for their roster of top name clients such as Chanel, Vogue, Bergdorf Goodman, Tiffany’s and many others.
Born and raised surrounded by orchards and gardens in California farm country, Lewis Miller’s love and respect for nature began early on. At 18, Lewis moved to Seattle to study horticulture and landscape design. He then went on to spend the next seven years nurturing his passion for design, flowers and event planning. In 2000 Lewis moved to New York and began working for one of the city’s top floral boutiques. After two years, Lewis took his career to the next stage and founded Lewis Miller Design with the vision of bringing country life to a metropolitan setting.
So, what sparked Lewis to begin Flower Flashing his home city of New York? In a blog post on the LMD site from October 2016, Lewis writes, “Gifting flowers to the people of New York City. It’s a simple idea that I have been knocking around in my brain for years. I love my job and what we do at LMD. We have created many lavish and memorable events for our wonderful clients that not only stay with them and their guests for years to come but have also left a smile and an impression on us over the years. We are in the business of fantasy and flowers; transforming key life moments in our client’s lives into magical, everlasting memories. My desire yesterday was to recreate just a sliver of that sentiment and offer it up to the city dwellers and tourists of this great city.”
Lewis went on to write about this first Flower Flash where his team placed over 2,000 flowers around the Imagine Mosaic in Central Park. The response was more than they could have ever imagined, strangers stopped in their tracks and a crowd quickly formed. “And in this age of social media, we saw the fruits of our labor and were instantly rewarded via Instagram! We got to see how our idea translated in real time with hundreds of selflies and photographs documenting the flowers throughout the course of the day. It was really cool to see how people changed and altered the installation, sometimes by rearranging the flowers, other times by simply taking them!” Lewis wrote.
With a 5:45 a.m. call time in order to try to finish before sunrise, Lewis and his team work like fairies in the night beautifying city streets with the goal of creating positive, emotional responses through flowers. The team recycles flowers from events for these flashes when possible and always leaves their signature in a chalk spray paint mark that reads LMD x NYC. They never broadcast where their next flash will be, so keep your eyes open the next time you are in NYC!
Since that first flash, and to the delight of New Yorkers, and now other cities around the world, Lewis’s efforts have expanded. At Lh we love honoring women, so when we saw LMD’s March 2018 Flower Flash campaign in partnership with Old Navy to celebrate National Women’s Day we fell in love with Lewis and his team even more! Out of 150 historical public statues in New York City, only five depict real life women! So, in one magical (and snowy!) night LMD’s team decorated these five statues of trailblazing women in their honor.
This Fall, LMD is partnering with The Whitby Hotel to create a special afternoon tea inspired by Lewis’s favorite seasonal blooms. On his blog he writes, “I like flowers that are rich, painterly and sumptuous. My favorites change constantly but I always return to the black and white anemone. They are delicate and graphic, timeless and modern. They satiate my love for duality with their angelic white petals and inky black center!” We cannot wait to see this, and we greatly look forward to Lewis and his team continuing to bring smiles to our faces through the beauty of nature and flowers!
#LMDWasHere
All Photos Courtesy of Lewis Miller Design
