With Christmas on the minds of most businesses, we asked Floral Stylist (and Styled Home Studios Host) Lois Kingsbury to tell us what it’s like working with a floral stylist and how bespoke florals can instantly elevate a campaign, especially at Christmas!
Lois has styled festive shoots for brands like Mint Velvet from her Norfolk studio, which is located in the garden of her beautiful location home: Cottage Calm – NR21 (where these gorgeous images of her work were taken). This is a quick and easy guide to working with a specialist in the flower field (pun intended) and the power of flowers in lifestyle photography. Over to you Lois!
What does a floral stylist do?
Like any stylist I will work with you to bring your brand’s campaign to life, to understand your vision and help you execute it with the addition of flowers. That may be through a showstopping installation of some kind, or it may be far more subtle with the aim being to use flowers to set the scene and mood of your shoot. Flowers are a brilliantly effective prop at bringing the shoot into the season in which your campaign will be used (I can often be found making Christmas wreaths for shoots in August!).
As florists we know how to use colour and texture and I work with brands to ensure what’s being provided complements the products at the heart of the shoot and isn’t dominant (unless that’s what you have asked for, of course!)
We’ll talk! I’ll take a brief from you – preferably with a mood board for both your vision for the flowers and for the overall shoot. I’ll then put together a proposal and we’ll agree what you’d like to be provided.
What happens on the day of the shoot?
That depends on you, but most often I will come to your location and work with the rest of your team to style your shots. Having me there during the shoot means the flowers can go further – items can be moved around the location and be redressed and remodelled so that you can get the most out of them. Most often for Christmas shoots I am asked to “housedress”: getting the location ready for Christmas with the tree, lights…. the whole shebang! My studio is in the garden of my own Styled Home Studios location, providing a very convenient resource for shoots held there.
A very special Christmas gift
