In The Eyes of Pierre Banchereau

The famed Parisian florist recently passed his 10-year milestone. How can anyone conceive that, in another life, he was a headhunter? The seeds he has sown over the last decade have grown to become a leading company in the world of art and fashion. His emblem of style involves banishing round, monochrome bouquets from the shelves of good taste. Through his eye, old-fashioned flowers have regained the aura that lilies and roses (too facelessly perfect) had taken from them. Gladioli, ranunculus, dalhias, carnations (his favourite flower) – all this colour blossoms into pictorial notes through his reinterpreted country scenes.

The bouquets are on rue Henri Monnier. The plants and vases on rue Victor Massé. And now he's added a third location to his world: a design studio on rue Duhesme, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. “Our DNA is to reconcile timelessness and modernity with new combinations of plants and colours,” says this former office worker, who has been fascinated by decorative art, gardens and flowers since his childhood in the Vendée region of western France.

All of this informs his twists – and how he rejects “strict, tasteless bouquets” with asymmetrical, polychrome compositions. He owes his passion to Dries Van Noten and Yves Saint Laurent (“an inspiration of colour, femininity and madness”), as much as to Flemish painting, Mediterranean Baroque and purity. “I like to combine Ercuis silverware with Murano glassware and contemporary crockery,” asserts Banchereau, essentially a sculptor of transience, who has restored a sense of time and imperfection to his work. “Taste is like an imbalance. I like to create accidents.” This year, he is supporting Sidaction by composing all the bouquets – some 2,000 flowers – for the event on January 25th in a tribute to Niki de Saint Phalle. Art and flowers meet again through a commitment that coincides with responsible choices. As he says, “To raise public awareness of seasonality; to look within ourselves as in nature; to discover the roots of a passion.” A passion that this season is tinged with the colours of fashion: purple, orange, old roses and burgundy.