The Flower Appreciation Society: fashion's favourite florists The Flower Appreciation Society is challenging floristry's old guard with its wild and loose style that puts the flowers first, says Ellie Pithers. It is midday on a rare sunny Saturday in April and inside a former printworks in Shoreditch, east London, a bit of magic is being worked. Surrounded by plastic tubs filled with armfuls of plump peach carnations, candy-pink begonias, creamy freesias and pungent herbs, an assorted bunch of women - hipster types, cool young mums, shy teenagers - sit huddled over a table, all absorbed in twisting together bright combinations of blooms to make floral crowns, under the watchful eyes of two young women with flowers in their hair. Ellie Jauncey and Anna Day may not have a shop, but they have a loyal following. Together they are the Flower Appreciation Society, which specialises in flower arrangements that appear to have been thrust together haphazardly yet contrive to create a romantic whole. 'Our style is very wild and loose,' Day explains, showing me how to secure a wayward carnation to a wire headband as part of a workshop in collaboration with the design studio Patternity . 'It's about letting the flowers be, appreciating their beauty by arranging them in a lovely informal way.' When I did my floristry course it was all about rules. We are the antithesis of that. Photo: Flower Appreciation Society The fashion world has recently woken to the informal appeal of their arrangements. Jauncey and Day have festooned guests with blooms at events for Toast and Anthropologie, created arrangements for Roger Vivier and Marc Jacobs, and made sets for Miss Vogue , Marie Claire and Numero magazines. READ: Spreading Toast: A fashion success story The Flower Appreciation Society began life in 2009, dreamt up by Jauncey and Day from behind the bar at the Scolt Head pub in De Beauvoir, east London. Both were passionate about flowers, but neither had thought seriously about a career in floristry. Day, 31, had completed a course in flower arranging after finishing her degree in illustration at the University of Brighton, but was training to be a midwife. Jauncey, 30, studied textiles at Manchester and trained with her mother, a florist, after being made redundant from her job as a textile buyer the previous year. Day's hand-drawn illustrations accompany bouquets. Photo: Anna Day Both were pulling pints to earn a bit of cash, and, on discovering a shared love of flowers, persuaded their boss to let them make posies for the bar once a week. Gradually they drummed up customers - and commandeered the pub. 'On a Friday night there would be people sitting there having their drinks, and we'd be doing flowers. We used to put them in the loo because it was the coldest place. We just put up a sign saying they were out of order! Jauncey says, laughing. They now occupy a studio a few streets away, and split their time between the Flower Appreciation Society and their other commitments: Day will start midwifery at Homerton University Hospital in September, and Jauncey has her own knitwear label, EDE . Twice a week they visit the New Covent Garden Market, where they marvel at the characters manning the stalls - 'The traders are cockney boys who've been doing it since they were 14,' Day says. 'They live this extraordinary life in the middle of the night' - and are rewarded for an early start with a cup of tea from their friends on the foliage stall. 'It can be freezing cold, pitch black and you feel exhausted when you set off, but when you get there you always feel better because the guys just make you laugh,' Jauncey says. Corsages and wedding bouquets are accompanied by hand-drawn labels, illustrated by Day. The two have a horror of cellophane-wrapped, floristry-by-numbers. 'When I did my floristry course it was all about rules,' Day says. 'It was all so ordered and manipulative - about form and colour and making sure you've got roses interspersed regularly. We'd put a lovely wedding bouquet together and there would be crystals stuck to the roses - disgusting! We are the absolute antithesis of that. Day and Jauncey's references are wide - they love the photographer Phyllis Galembo and the textile designer Gunta Stölzl - and their arrangements have an unstudied air. They use English-grown flowers where possible, and attach hand-drawn tags featuring bee-keepers and birds to bouquets. Their bridal bouquets start at £65. Swans at the opening of the Toast Marylebone store. Photo: Toast As yet they have no plans to open a shop; social media is bolstering their reputation sufficiently. 'Our online presence is vital,' Jauncey says. 'Our website embodies our brand: Anna's illustrations, our visual inspirations, our packaging and tags.' Their ethos has struck a chord with lifestyle brands: in a recent collaboration with Toast, they decorated the Marylebone store with herb-laden garlands and flowers inspired by a new-season checked dress, and also contributed an illustrated guide to edible flowers to the company's blog, Toast Travels . 'It doesn't just have to be about cut flowers - we want to expand into other areas,' Day says. READ: Toast reach their apogee in their 'Toast 15' collection Until then they are happy to let their reputation spread organically, sharing leftover bouquets with friends and kindly taxi drivers. 'Everyone responds so well to flowers,' Day says, smiling. Do they have a favourite variety? 'If I had to choose one it would probably be a coral charm peony,' Day says. 'I love them as buds, I love them when they're opening, how they change colour...' 'They smell of fish when they die, though,' Jauncey interjects, cutting short her partner's wistful paean. 'It's a sorry death.'