This Singapore botanical design studio is a hit with celebs and luxury brands

There it sat, resplendent on the dining table. Forest ferns pirouetted next to palm fronds as striking celadon anthurium bracts bobbed in the foreground. It was already refreshing for a floral arrangement to be mostly foliage, playing off variations of the colour green in intriguing juxtapositions of textures and hues. But the delightful strangeness of the other botanicals radiating from the vessel aroused a fierce curiosity. What were these beguiling fuzzy jadeite leaves? Or those mysterious emerald berries?

The floral sculpture I had been gifted was the Foliage arrangement from Friday's Garden, a botanical design studio with a loyal coterie of customers, and a rising go-to for celebrities and luxury brands. "I don't just want to present decor. That's not what we’re about," explains founder Clare Lee. Behind her, fringed flame tulips from the Netherlands and fuzzy kangaroo paws native to Australia wait in beautiful vases to be assembled into their final incarnations. "I want our arrangements to make you wonder."

Lee has an infectious warmth and ready eloquence. Our conversation at Friday's intimate botanical design studio in Midview City is powered by the force of her enthusiasm for floriculture. "Nature is crazy clever," she proclaims. "Plants have a contour of their own. We respect them and try not to wire recalcitrant stems because if a bloom wants to bend a certain way, it isn't a slouch but a ballet position."

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Naturally, Friday's designs are never repeated. The studio sources its blooms and foliage from flower markets around the world, as well as collects local blossoms and vegetation from homegrown suppliers such as a private farm on Pulau Ubin. "Every few months we used to take the ferry out to harvest cosmos, marigolds, and ginger," shares Lee. "There were these incredible baby pink jungle grapes people couldn't believe were grown on an Ubin farm."

Her arrangements are deliberately assembled with botanicals that will evolve over the week. "You could get a plant that looks like a fig or teardrop with wooden bracts, but which splits open into a fractal when it matures," says Lee. The studio's emphasis on finding flowers and blooms that arouse curiosity and generate surprise can be seen in how they push their suppliers to find the botanicals they want. "There must be something unexpected. A magic moment. When the breeze comes, something must move so the piece feels alive. If people want to take a closer look, they must be rewarded."

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The foraged floral aesthetic of Lee's work is in tune with the revival of wilderness designs in high-end floristry from New York to London. The idea that garden botanicals are fit for high society décor came from celebrated 19th century British floral maven Constance Spry, who famously arranged the flowers for the Duke of Windsor's wedding to Wallis Simpson with Parisian lilies, yes, but also branches collected from the woods around the French chateau that hosted the nuptials. Spry revolutionised the floral industry by championing wild, non- bloom botanicals such as weeds, twigs, and grasses.

In Singapore, the challenge lies in collecting enough wild ingredients for commercial purposes when one cannot forage from state land, leading Lee to import to make up for the shortfall.

Friday's creations hit just the right blend of luxurious and footloose, glamour and dégagé. Many of the studio's fiercely devout customers are discerning, well-travelled young Singaporeans who enjoy the manicured urban greenery of the city but also seek the beatnik esprit of the wild and untrammelled. "It blows my mind when people say, ‘That's a Friday's Garden look’ when they associate our designs with a wild, organic approach," says Lee. "The people that seek us out are curious about that little patch of garden that's gone feral, the one reaching toward the sun. They want," says Lee, "a little mystery".

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Before Friday's Garden was even a dream, Lee worked for over 12 years as a creative director and copywriter in the branding industry. Self-taught as a painter, she forayed into full-time commercial artwork in 2017, using acrylics as a medium to paint abstracts and human figures. But when Covid hit and Lee couldn't get to her art studio, she got plants and flowers delivered to her home and began exploring with a different canvas, making floral arrangements for friends who wanted to cheer others up during the pandemic. "I still consider myself an artist," says Lee, "though the medium has changed."

Word about her craft and originality spread quickly on social media and orders streamed in. The studio is affectionately called Friday's Garden because Lee's apartment would be packed with plants and flowers until orders shipped out on Saturday. "The dining table was sometimes so crowded with flowers I bought from the market that my family and I ate off a picnic mat on the floor."

Lee soon transferred operations to Pearl's Hill Terrace, which she shared with plant nursery Little Botany. "We were a botanical bar with no sign or logo," she recounts. "The only way you’d find us was through a little window." She moved to bigger premises in Midview last year.

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Considering that Friday's Garden began less than two years ago, growth has been swift. A scant six months after the studio opened, the team were already in talks with Gardens by the Bay to contribute to a horticultural display organised in conjunction with the Embassy of Italy. Since then, it provided botanical styling for internationally renowned artists such as Forbes 30 under 30 photographer Zhang Jingna. The studio's blooms were part of Chanel's corporate gifting and it has also designed floral displays and visual merchandising for homegrown businesses such as leather goods store Bynd Artisan and Gather Coffee.

Despite its increased exposure, the bohemian elegance and carefully cultivated intimacy that characterises Friday's Garden continues to make it feel like an exclusive tastemaker's secret. Singer Kit Chan uses different florists depending on the occasion "but Friday's is my ‘private’ florist, the one I use for special friends, or for people I feel will appreciate Lee's unusual creations," she says. "A part of me hates that Friday's is no longer my secret, but I am immensely proud of Lee. Friday's is the alternative florist that Singapore needs."

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