Notes on a Floral Arrangement

Meet the floral designer crafting botanical sensations and bringing a touch of magic to every space

- Lynette Ow

When people received a bouquet of flowers during the Victorian times, instead of reaching out for their vase, they would consult their floral dictionary to look up what the secret message of the flowers meant. Then and now, flowers have always come loaded with messages. For example, it reminds us too that it needs water and of what it takes to sustain life. Its ephemerality is a lesson in fleeting beauty and harnessing this to the pinnacle of its artistic form, is Dianthus Kiss, a spirited 37-year-old who has been in the floral design trade for 20 years.

Having learnt the ropes from inside the family business, her designs are lush and luxurious, enhanced by textures and play on elegant tone-on-tone colours and harmonious moods. “I always want everything that the sender would like to be said, be conveyed in pure, unadulterated prettiness. Every care would have been taken to work the flowers with subtle, whimsical flourishes which is very distinctive to my signature flair for flowers.”

On a spectrum of rustic “woke up like this” dry foliage aesthetic and monumental Rorschach-like installations, her arrangements are neoclassical with a touch of whimsical—something that looks right out of a Bridgerton set.

This flair of hers has garnered a solid roster of repeat projects from the country’s biggest luxury fashion houses and watch brands, although the floral designer shares that her biggest, loyal customers are “private clients that look to flowers for personalised, thoughtful gifting. They themselves love flowers and see them as ideal gifts to express their feelings and sentiments to their loved ones.