Phoenix Marketcity, Kurla, recently collaborated with world-renowned floral architect – Tomas De Bruyne for the transformation of the mall into a visual spectacle creating a mesmerizing winter wonderland at the mall with a stunning decor made of 2D snowflakes in clear acrylic, sky blue acrylic, and mirror finish. The Winter Mystique designed by Tomas De Bruyne is an artistic masterpiece that aims to celebrate the tenacity of the human spirit and the inner journey of the soul, which is as intricate and individualistic as the contours of a snowflake.
Retropop Lifestyle recently interacted with Tomas to know about his floral creation at Phoenix Marketcity Kurla. He gave some interesting views and insights about his experience with the Indian artists, his Design Sensibility and what we are all dealing with and what we should and could do in the time of Covid-19.
Share the significance of your floral art installations?
To begin with, the whole concept of the Winter Mystique at Phoenix Marketcity was built around the formation of a unique snowflake which is a beautiful metaphor of the human spirit. Each individual snowflake follows slightly different paths from the sky to the ground and thus encounters slightly different atmospheric conditions along the way. The human spirit follows a similar pattern. We each meet our own adversities, joyful moments, milestone challenges and in the mist of whichever conditions we face; it is the uniqueness of the human spirit that always prevails.
Winter is a time when we always look back to what has happened and hope for a chance to a new beginning. It is a time of celebration, of aiming to do only good and of an introspective journey inside our individual soul. 2020 has been a year that completely shacked the entire world, yet it also taught us the important lesson that the human spirit is an enormous resource that we must always cultivate and nourish.
Collaborating with Phoenix Market city, Kurla to design these installations, how was the experience?
Phoenix Marketcity has a lot space and the means to host an oversized floral installation is always a great pleasure as a creative at this place. Collaborating with them to design the Winter Mystique installation has been again a great experience for me. The mall is spacious and has a tastefull design, and it lends itself to my aesthetic vision seamlessly, and compliments the installation perfectly. We have a common goal: creating that personal experience that touches people’s hearts.
How was your experience with the Indian artists?
India couldn’t find a better slogan for its country to reflect what the culture entails: “Incredible India”, meaning the extraordinary, impossible or difficult to believe. The rich culture and heritage of your country in combination of my country of the craft, skills and human labour is unique in the world. Add a little bit of ‘JUGAR’ and you feel yourself submerged in the incredible India.
Did you always want to be a floral designer? How did it happen?
I always knew I would do something creative, means and medium was unknown till I met my girlfriend who parents had a flower shop. She was my first teacher and gave met the virus and love for flowers. A conscious creative should be able to work with different medium, as it is only a vehicle to express your creativity. For sure, the better you know your medium, the better you can communicate the expectations of your clients.
What is your design sensibility and USP?
That would have to be my concept approach within an architectural framework. The added value comes not only from my floral installations but also from the power of the space around it. In my work, I envision the impact of the whole outcome instead of concentrating exclusively on “my installation”, as I always strive to give people a full experience, not merely a floral decoration, no matter how big which is what I have tried to do with the magnificent Winter Mystique at Phoenix Marketcity, Kurla.
I am committed to perform not only for my clients, but personally, as well. There is beautiful loyalty between my clients and myself as they are all very dear al to me. I put my soul in my creations and truthfully I stopped trying to make everybody like my work. I work for those people with whom I share an authentic connection and vice versa.
Then, I would say is staying with my expertise, which means my core business is on bringing Bespoke Floral Experiences Worldwide through a network of the finest free-lancers and vendors from the global industry. My task is to uplift each event with my experience and knowledge. I am a strong believer in specialized companies, having the passion to use that one skill which makes you unique and qualified to uplift each project. The tailor-made designs we offer to our clients – whether private, event agencies or luxury brands – are innovative, elegant, and unique and display great craftsmanship.
What about the challenges you faced while working in India?
Getting more for less, meaning expectations versus reality is sometimes unrealistic.
How did you cope up with the Covid-19 crisis?
As most of the world, we also went in lockdown and events were not happening. Considering that 90% of my projects are always abroad, you can imagine it was not an easy year on my company. Fortunately, I am a shareholder in another company as well, where I share together with a team of 10 people my expertise trough floral design master classes. So actually, the pandemic situation gave me time to concentrate on enhancing the floral education experiences we offer at European Master Certification. It was a great opportunity to roll out, finally, the curriculum in an online version. The first classes actually started in September 2020 and they showed great results. Introducing blended learning with the right online platform we can now cover the entire globe, which makes is possible for anybody who wants to become a conscious creative in the floral industry.
I have still kept close contact, virtually, with my clients, vendors and collaborators all over the world, planning projects, developing new solutions for the new times that came and focusing on being ready for the new events that for sure will follow.
