International Flower decoration Trend

According to Mieke Stap, a floral design expert and trend guru for the International Flower Bulb Center in Holland, "Two major floral trends dominate right now - andthey're direct opposites. You could call them Sublime Simplicity and Extreme Combinations." Stap oversees international floral design photo shoots in 15 countries around the world each year. The two trends, says Stap, lend themselves to an amateur's unbridled creativity and experimentation. "Sublime Simplicity is soothing, featuring single-colour combinations. This look emerged in the late '90s and continues to get stronger," explains Stap. "This look is subtle, calm and pretty. Think of pink-on-pink mixes of colour-related tulips and Persian buttercups," she says. To employ the simplicity theme, only one colour choice is necessary. The rest of the choices for the arrangement revolve around flower shapes, textures and how they are arranged in the vase of one's choice.

Extreme Combinations are energizing looks - bright, shiny, chaotic and high contrast," recounts Stap. "This look is creeping into fashion now, it's cutting edge, part of the new design world evolving in the new Millennium." There are two ways to achieve Extreme Combinations, she says. You can mix wildly different flowers together in one "blow-out bouquet" or you can place vivid single colour arrangements into jarring, high contrast settings.

"You might mix orange, hot pink and yellow flowers in one arrangement. Or, you could place a single-colour bouquet of searing orange tulips into a room with hot pink walls and yellow curtains. Either way, the overall effect is totally discordant - energizing." (Source BBW magazine)