Emily Thompson

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New York florist Emily Thompson brings a wild, natural, and dramatic approach to floral design, using the abundance of the season in her designs. Emily likes to balance the uncultivated organic world with a sensibility both classical and contemporary.

Emily was raised in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, a place of uncompromising beauty that strongly influences her work. She studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy for the Arts, the University of Pennsylvania, and UCLA, where she earned her Masters of Fine Arts in sculpture. Her interest in sculpture eventually led her to the medium of flowers. 

Emily Thompson Flowers began in 2006. Since then, she and her crew have designed events and galas for Moma, Lincoln Center, and most recently the Frick Collection’s Autumn Gala. In 2011, Emily was the guest designer for Christmas at the White House, where her designs included living gardens in the East Room. 

Emily likes to cite William Gilpin, 18th century theorist of the picturesque, who directed builders of follies and artificial ruins to do so as if these ruins were not designed but naturally chosen. What’s more, writes Gilpin, they must be in magnificent style. 

Emily’s work, like her ideal faux ruin, evokes nature in magnificent style.