Meet the Irish duo giving floristry a cool new image 

Floristry in the 21st century has reinvented itself with the Irish landscape inspiring a London studio's cutting-edge designs 

Terri Chandler and Katie Smyth of London-based florist Worm which produces arrangements and installations for fashion houses, parties, weddings and launches, using the Irish coastal landscape as inspiration. Picture: Kay Ford

Just five years ago Terri Chandler from Cork and Dubliner Katie Smyth established Worm, a London-based floristry company that has ensured the duo are in demand among fashion houses, retailers and the hospitality to set the scene for extravagant events and photoshoots.

It all began through one of those chance meetings.

This flower wall is made up of dried materials, so after the dinner party or gathering is over there is no rush to take it down. Plus, there's the bonus of not having to work in straight lines. Picture: Kristin Perers

“We’d meet for dinner in a pub as part of an extended friendship group,” Terri explains. “I was in and out of acting jobs and teaching, and Katie was doing fashion jobs. Neither of us was going anywhere very fast.”

At the time, Terri was living on Columbia Road in East London, immersed in its famous flower market, while both she and Katie had always found nature in Ireland, especially coastal areas, particularly inspiring.

“We were in our late 20s,” Katie adds, “and thought let’s start something together, even as a side project to fulfil us. We did a one day a week flower course in Pimlico and started doing a book and a bunch service where we’d make a bouquet and deliver it with a book.

“Then we started doing weddings for friends, and events got so big that book and a bunch has taken a bit of a back seat.”

A ceiling hung arrangement frees up table space. Here wild foliage is mixed with linens for a rich, eclectic look. Picture: Kristin Perers

Fashion photoshoots started adding to their repertoire along with floral installations for hotels, all of which were drawn to the distinctive Worm aesthetic.

They now count Harpers Bazaar, Town & Country, and fashion brands Erdem, H&M, Roxanda and Peter Piloto among their clients.

But it was when the business was barely a year old and they were working as a two-woman band that they got the call which was a turning point for their business: A commission to decorate Freemasons’ Hall in Covent Garden for the launch of the Erdem and H&M collection.

“They wanted a wild garden look,” Terri says. “It was pretty huge as there were 800 guests and everyone had to leave with a bouquet, and it was just me and Katie.”

Rallying some additional floristry help to implement their ideas which filled the venue with meadow, it took five days to complete.

Wreaths for all occasions are a Worm speciality. This dramatic piece not only brings nature indoors but provides a living artwork. Picture: Kristin Perers

It’s this natural beauty and seeing the extraordinary in something as humble as a dried hydrangea and foraged foliage that has also attracted attention from around the world. It led to Katie taking up an invitation to teach the Worm approach to students in China just before lockdown.

“Photos on Instagram bring in that kind of work,” she says. “In China, they’re really into the western floral aesthetic.”

But it’s not just far-away places like China coveting the Worm look.

Terri and Katie’s reputation is also growing here in Ireland and led to them creating the Avoca Christmas window display in 2019, and working with fashion designer Simone Rocha.

As it is with most businesses, 2020 has made its mark on their activities but according to Katie, it’s given them time to step back and think.

The breadth of their work across areas as diverse as fashion, retail, weddings, hospitality and events now allows them to pick their jobs, and as we chat they tell me they’re making preparations to do a window display for Selfridges on Oxford Street the next day.

While big weddings have been on hold for the last year, Katie says, “The diary is packed with weddings again for 2022.”

But they’ve come some way from their first wedding which went so over budget, Terri says, “We had to put money in, but we got so much business afterwards out of it.”

Their flair for diversity also means collaborations with artists and photographers are in the pipeline and they’re hoping to bring out a product soon, and they even have their publisher asking when they might write a second book to follow their 2019 publication Wreaths.

Asking what they call themselves when the word florist suddenly seems inadequate, Katie’s answer is practical: “I’m a flower arranger. I like the word arrange because we put things together.”

Terri adds with a laugh: “We’ll put flowers into the back of a taxi and the driver will ask us why we’ve filled his car with weeds. We’re drawn to the thing that isn’t necessarily the hero. Flower sellers will say, ‘I’ve put aside the ugliest things because you’d like them’. I would say we’re florists, but we do it in a different way.”