Walking on the wild side
- Elena belongs to a new generation of flower designers
- She launched her studio after living in Australia for one year
- In her arrangements, she mixes modern and wild elements
There is a turning point in everyone’s life. For Elena Borg, it was the year she spent in Australia after studying communication, press and graphic design in France. Living abroad gave her the opportunity to discover herself. When she went back home, she still didn’t know that she would become a flower designer, but she soon realized that she would rather work by herself with nature and creativity than in an office. One year later, her atelier Tepee Sauvage was born. Elena took a course to learn the basis of floristry, then she attended many workshops both in person and online, learning from French and American floral designers. Today, Elena specialises in weddings and events, both in the Landes region where she lives, and the surrounding regions.
Discover her work
INTERVIEW
Definitely. I love the way Australians mix modern and wild elements in anything they do. In my arrangements I try to do the same: even if my style is still evolving, changing along with my personal interests, I always combine wilderness with a contemporary twist.
Quite the opposite. The floral industry has been moving really fast in the last few years, with young flower designers creating a new, exciting dimension. As for me, I love original things: that’s why most of the time I work with unknown and untraditional flowers.
I’d rather improvise than do sketches: I decide what to do when my flowers are in front of me. For inspiration, I follow a lot of colleagues on social media, but many ideas come from everyday life, from food, design, nature, magazines and especially travels.
People would say my speciality is dried flowers, but I love to mix them with fresh ones, too. My favourite are proteas, bougainvillea, magnolias and sweet peas. And of course banksias, a native Australian species that I discovered when I was there.
