New Bloom with FLORIST NYC

Designer George Banks speaks with office about the journey Florist NYC has made and is continuing to take.

How’s it going? How are you?

Good, good. A Monday morning.

Yeah, I feel you. So, When did you decide to start a brand?

Well, it started, like, a bit under three years ago. I was an operations manager for a menswear label here in Brooklyn. It was like a small business with a pretty small team and after hours, we had a factory in Bushwick with a whole bunch of old machines and I taught myself to embroider, after hours, just to sort of make some money on the side. I figured the best sort of vehicle for embroidery was a bag because then people are walking around with it. I felt like that was a good product that I could sell. And so then it just turned into Florists, that's sort of how it all started.

Were you always into art and design growing up? How'd you get into fashion?

I was. Yeah, I've been into art, into painting. My grandma was a painter and sculptor. I've always been into not so much like fashion, but definitely into, accessorizing clothing, like chopping clothes up and just sort of adding personal detail to clothes I had. So that's sort of where the embroidery also comes in. I just like adding things to clothes, accessories, things like that. It wasn't like fashion design, I never studied fashion design.

So, how did you end up learning the technique of working with leather?

I've sort of just learned things as I go, I'm all self-taught. One of the guys that rented some space in the factory that I was working at, he was a leather goods guy and he gave me a base pattern, a base for a bag. That was sort of how it all started. I started to learn a bit about how to construct bags using base templates and it developed from there. All the products I make now are kind of limited to what I’m capable of doing. I have some leather machines but I don’t have certain machines to make different shapes, so that's sort of why I started the braided bags, because I can hand sew those as opposed to sew them on a machine. It's always developing I’m just trying to learn more things as they go. That's sort of why I have like a utilitarian silhouette. It's all these like square shapes and pretty simple shapes. I like the classic look of them also.

I noticed that your brand is unisex rather than menswear or womenswear. What was the thought process behind that choice?

I just don't think that it should be specific to gender. Like, say the baby bag that I make is, you know, a cute little silhouette and small tiny bags were a huge thing a year or so ago but, I've found that like that lots of guys buy those bags also. I would like anyone to be able to buy or feel like they could wear the bags I make.

I definitely agree. How’d you come up with the name Florist?

It was really hard, honestly. I felt like I was trying to figure out a name for six months, and I had just a long list of potential names, and they were multiple pages long. I would think of one name and then I would riff on that and swap things around. So, that would lead to like five other names. Then the next day or later on, I would have another thought and that would be another five but, then I was working at a studio in Chinatown. I kept noticing all these florists and just the different variations of florists. I just found it to be an interesting name and I felt like the product I was making is quite colorful and when someone buys a product like that, whether it's for themselves or for a friend, it's kind of like an expression of your emotions. It's a positive happy, colorful object. And I feel like that similarly to flowers or a bouquet, or whatever you buy, it's an expression of emotions. And so that sort of led me to calling it Florist. And obviously, I like flowers as imagery. I feel like it's good for everyone really; I feel like everyone likes flowers.

Why Melbourne, AU to New York?

Well, New York because the first place I traveled to by myself when I was 21. I came and did a summer program here. I was studying fine art digital photography at school. And I just, I loved it. I love the diversity of the city and I love how everyone is just having a go at something, you know, like, you just put whatever you have into your projects or your passions and just kind of like see how it goes. I felt like that was super inspiring. And then the opportunity came up to work and do an internship at this company. And one thing led to another and I've always loved New York. Honestly, for me, it was the people that have just like with no filter. I found when I first came here, as a 21-year-old, being on the train or just walking down the street, whether you're humming a tune or whatever you're doing, you don't think that anyone is listening to you, you just feel like every single other person, but then, someone will just come up to you and say, “I like your tune man,” or comment on something that you're doing, and whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. I just found that to be a real captivating element. And coming from Melbourne, it's, very, very small in comparison to New York, obviously. Australians people are definitely happy people and pretty comfortable talking to strangers and things like that, but definitely not like New York.

What's next for Florist?

I just want it to keep growing. I would love to do some clothing and some home goods. It's hard to know, kind of what I want it to be because it's just constantly developing, and it's developing, like, under my arm. I have to learn how to do something in order for it to come to fruition. It's sort of just month by month, especially after COVID, everything sort of shifted a bit. I felt like I was on one trajectory and then all of a sudden, the world kind of stopped, and you sort of have to look at what you have, and how you can build that. So, that sort of led to me introducing more embroidery into my work and trying to grow my customer base. I'm developing some home goods like pillows, and I was sort of developing some linen, and then just a few pieces of clothing to start and see how that goes. I would love for Florist to be sort of an all-encompassing home goods, handbags, and some simpler clothing items. I've always loved ceramics. And I feel like that's a no brainer, really, if we're called Florist, obviously, flowers need something to go in. I'd love to develop ceramics. There's lots more growth to be had with the bags, and I'm just sort of pushing it and trying to develop some new silhouettes and get better with my construction and making the products, just elevating them more. I want them to be really high quality. So, it always takes a bit to learn how to do that sort of thing. So yeah, I'm just gonna just keep going with it a see what happens, really.

That’s really cool. I’ve never seen a bag like yours before.

That's awesome. I love that. I feel like that’s partly to do with my naivety, in that, I'm trying to do something that I'm not technically trained in. I think the byproduct of that is these bags that aren’t too similar to anything else that's available I guess that's a lucky thing. It's a happy accident, the whole thing. I love the way it makes people feel.