Bloomtime in London with Kelsie Hayes

Welcome to the VB Guest Edit, where each month, we tap the most inspiring friends, experts and muses in our orbit to share their own need-to-knows. This May, we’re passing the mic to Kelsie Hayes, the founder of POPUPFLORIST in NYC and author of Say it with Flowers. Kelsie spent the past week across the pond, creating a magical floral display in our Sloane Square store for Chelsea in Bloom, London’s annual floral art festival. See how it all came together, below…

Fashion has always been my creative anchor. I studied Fashion Design in college, went on to become Design Director for an LA-based brand, and eventually found my way to flowers. I founded POPUPFLORIST in 2016, and over the years we’ve developed our own point of view. But I’ve always loved stepping into another brand’s identity to help tell their story through florals—from what a brand sends to their top clients to what sits in the design room each week to keep a team inspired. Flowers play such a pivotal role in creating feeling, grounding a space and sparking creativity.

We’re nearly through the Spring event season at POPUPFLORIST—we made it through Mother’s Day, celebrated our 10-year anniversary and now get to finish it all off with a true bucket-list project with Veronica Beard: Chelsea in Bloom. Chelsea in Bloom is a celebration that runs alongside the Chelsea Flower Show in London, where local businesses, shops and restaurants create elaborate floral installations inspired by the show’s annual theme.

Together, the two events transform the neighborhood into a large-scale floral destination, extending the creativity and atmosphere of the Flower Show beyond the exhibition grounds and into the streets of Chelsea for a week in May. Veronica Beard’s Sloane Square location is right in the middle of it. The store is impeccable—the second you walk through the doors, you feel the strong sense of identity of the brand, from the layers of textiles to the eclectic selection of vases and objects. It’s such an honor to create something at this level for a brand we genuinely love collaborating with.

This year’s theme for Chelsea in Bloom is “Out of this World,” and it feels like a really natural bridge between the design perspectives of Veronica Beard and POPUPFLORIST. Inspiration comes from so many places, but I always love to start with the brand’s collection itself. The color palette, the shape of the buttons, the color of the thread—I love diving into all of the small details.

From the moment I heard the theme, I immediately knew I wanted purple and red to be present. There’s something about that combination that feels bold and slightly surreal. Color comes to me in so many ways, through art, landscapes and to even dressing my 4-year-old daughter in the morning. To me, color is joy and always worth using.

As far as flower selection, this show gives us access to one of the best flower markets in the world at one of the best times of year. We worked with Tom Brown Wholesale, who is one of the biggest importers in the city, though you wouldn’t know it by how high-touch their service is. They made sure we got exactly what we’re looking for. We also sourced extra-special blooms from New Covent Garden Market, which we love for their selection of British-grown cut flowers and plants.

Seasonality is really important to us, especially in a place like London where the local flowers are so beautiful and abundant. That being said, the saying “the early bird gets the worm” couldn’t ring more true here. To get the best product, you have to go early. We started our days at the flower market between 4:45 and 5:30 each morning, and it was already fully abuzz by the time we arrived.

A huge part of sourcing is understanding timing and bloom stage. You never really want to buy something fully at peak unless it’s for an event that same evening. We’re always looking for flowers that are just about to open so the installation continues to evolve and come to life over the course of the five day show.

For our installation, we sourced around 75 different varieties of flowers and used 5,000+ stems. We played with texture through mono-blooms, layering masses of the same flower together to create something sculptural and immersive. To build such a delicate, garden-inspired piece, the mechanics underneath had to be done in a very specific way. We created towers of buckets and trays to achieve the shape we were looking for and ensure every stem had a water source. I love seeing what’s underneath a beautiful installation—behind every finished piece there’s usually a little bit of chaos.

The installation took place over two days. The first was dedicated to sourcing and building the structural elements, followed by installation day itself, which ended up being nearly 18 hours from start to finish. On the second day, the front of the store was lined with more than 100 buckets of flowers. We created the piece during store hours, so people were able to stop, interact with the florals and watch the installation come to life in real time.

We really wanted it to feel immersive and transportive—like the florals had completely taken over the store. The idea was that the flowers were growing out of the clothing and mannequins themselves, almost taking on a life of their own. We wanted to blur the line between fashion and florals in a way that felt playful, dramatic and a little bit otherworldly. The finished piece feels like a true appreciation of cut flowers, and you can really tell by the reactions we’ve been getting. It was incredibly gratifying to see the vision fully come together. The moment you step into the store, you’re transported into this immersive, extraterrestrial dreamscape.

The icing on the cake of a great week was our dinner at Strakers, hosted by Julia Restoin Roitfeld, where we toasted the installation with the Veronica Beard team and friends. Intimate dinners are my favorite events to design for, and we were able to transform the room into a celebration of flowers. We used all British-grown flowers and sourced all of the vessels locally. I even brought vintage taper holders from home to complete the table.

The whole week has been really fun and challenging (in the best way!). We had super long days but balanced them with all of the things we love about London. Ottolenghi was our daytime fuel, and we hit a few other spots: the Chelsea Grill, Dishoom, Builders Arms and The River Cafe. I love sourcing here for our creative event space, House of Three as well as shopping for my sweet 4 year-old, Lenny. And of course we visited the Chelsea Flower Show as a team, which was so inspiring.

I’m so deeply grateful for the trust we were given for this event. This entire week has been something I’ll never forget. The Veronica Beard brand is clearly built with so much passion, creativity and integrity. From the moment you step into a store, meet a member of the team or put on one of their perfectly tailored jackets, you feel genuinely cared for and considered.

Flowers and fashion have always gone hand in hand for me, and being a part of this event during the 10-year mark for POPUPFLORIST has made me feel certain that I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.