48 THE HUNT MAGAZINE spring 2014
D FOX FO DER FARM florals, fashion & fragrance Founder and creative director Taylor Patterson is continually inspired by her upbringing on the original Fox Fodder Farm in Rockland, Del. By Lauren Ashley Golt Photography by Jim Graham www.thehuntmagazine.com 49
When I moved to New York, I didn t have a plan, but I did have a garden. Taylor Patterson styles a wedding at Wilmington s Hotel du Pont. Not everyone can say their job is their passion, but Taylor Patterson can. She is the founder of Brooklyn, N.Y. s Fox Fodder Farm, a floral and garden design studio that creates installations for weddings, events, residences, and editorial styling. What started as a hobby can now be seen in Vogue magazine, and on runways at fashion week. Patterson grew up on a spacious farm in Rockland, Del. the original Fox Fodder Farm. We had chickens and my mom sold their eggs. The foxes were always eating her chickens and so she came up with this name, she says. Patterson spent her childhood playing outdoors and riding her pony, Missy. It was here, on her family s farm, that she acquired her appreciation for nature and her love of gardening. Most everything I know came from my parents. They ve both been so involved with gardening and plants for as long as I can remember, she says. After spending 10 years living in different cities and working various jobs while trying to figure out what she truly wanted to do, Patterson started working for a landscape designer and florist at the suggestion of a friend. When I moved to New York, I didn t have a plan, but I did have a garden. I was talking to my friend about what I should do in life and she pointed to the garden and said why don t you do this? A light bulb went on. After a while, Patterson took on her own accounts outside of her job. These increased enough so that in 2011 she decided to take a leap of faith and work strictly on her own. Living in Brooklyn, Patterson missed the elements of nature and the feeling of home, so she decided to name the company after her family s farm. She likes the idea that as you move forward, you look back on where you came from. It s clear when speaking to Patterson that she is an old soul, with a deep appreciation for the people and places that have shaped her. I don t know if I ll ever move back to the Brandywine Valley, but I feel like there s always going to be something calling me home, she says. Each day in the life of a floral designer is a little different, depending on the project or upcoming event. Patterson and Anna Erice, her right-hand associate, start their day in the very early morning at the flower market in Chelsea. From there it s off to the studio, which Patterson shares with an industrial designer and a ceramicist. Patterson, Erice and an intern prep the flowers and map out a game plan. I ll make a sample that the girls working with me will use to create their own arrangements, Taylor says. The next six hours are spent arranging flowers. 50 THE HUNT MAGAZINE spring 2014
Fox Fodder Farm s aesthetic lies outside the realm of your everyday arrangements. It s whimsical, organic, and more about shape, texture, and elements of nature. Patterson describes her style as constantly evolving, and says the most important part is celebrating the beauty of the materials she works with. For us a single perfect garden rose speaks louder than 10 dozen of your mass market variety. For a Long Island City fall wedding, Patterson created industrial vignettes throughout the venue, using everything from rusted iron wheels and aged Terracotta pots, to antique apothecary jars and pieces of driftwood. A wedding at the Green Building in Brooklyn called for an altar of cherry blossoms and assortments of herbs in cement pots. For jewelry designer Pamela Love s 2012 wedding, which was featured in Vogue, Patterson created a floral crown of purple, white, and yellow wildflowers. It looked beautiful on Pamela and complemented her bohemian style. When Brides Magazine asked Patterson to showcase her floral styling with a boutonniere collection, she created 16 unique options using elements like dried flowers, herbs, bark, suede, and feathers. With Patterson s keen eye, innate talent, and distinctive style, it isn t hard to see why the fashion world started calling her. RoAndCo, a New York-based design studio, was art directing a lookbook photo shoot for clothing line Candela, and asked Fox Fodder Farm to collaborate on the floral prop styling. Since then, Fox Fodder Farm has worked with designers like Patrik Ervell, Le Paola Peu, Honor, Mara Hoffman, and Lizzie Fortunato Jewels, designing installations, headpieces, veils, and more. This past fall, Fox Fodder Farm was commissioned to create a wildflower field for Honor s runway show at New York Fashion Week; it turned into one of Patterson s all-time favorite projects. It was really our aesthetic, and doing (continued on page 84) www.thehuntmagazine.com 51
FOX FODDER FARM continued from page 51 this large-scale installation was incredibly rewarding, she says. While floral design is a large part of the business, Fox Fodder Farm is starting to evolve from strictly a service into more of a brand. Patterson developed two signature scents that launched in the fall; one is woodsy and the other, floral. Both fragrances are simple, perfect for everyday, and available in body oil, candle, and soap form. Last year she collaborated with Farrah Sit, of Light + Ladder, on a line of planters they refer to as plant bondage. The idea was to reinterpret the planter into something more elegant. Patterson and Sit drew inspiration from Kokedama, the Japanese bonsai, and created a self-sustaining structure for hanging plants. They built a bronze frame to hold the floating plant and a wooden base, and porcelain dish to soak its roots. When we spoke to Patterson last summer she was in town for a wedding at the Hotel DuPont, not as a guest but as the floral designer. She s designed arrangements for events all over the country but this was Taylor s fi rst local gig. I would really love for us to do a lot more in the area, she says. Growing up in Delaware, the Brandywine Valley has had a major infl uence not only on what I do but my aesthetic as well, With three years of success and new projects in the works, it s clear this is just the beginning for Fox Fodder Farm. So where does Patterson see the business in 10 years? My hope is that FFF is still continuing to move in new directions we haven t become stagnant. We love doing fl owers, we love gardening, and now we love working on fragrances. We defi nitely want to keep exploring our interests so who knows what the future will bring? FOX FODDER FARM 67 West St. #601 / Brooklyn, NY 11222 By Appointment Only Studio@foxfodderfarm.com www.foxfodderfarm.com WILD GARDEN continued from page 53 moved to his property, which was already wooded with towering tulip poplar trees, beeches, oaks, and hickories. The focus became on one or a handful of plants at a time, rather than great sweeps best viewed en masse, he says. Few native woodland wildfl owers are showy, and therefore paying attention to the details of each plant or clump is necessary. As a result, he created a network of unobtrusive wood paths from which to tour his collection of more than 125 species. Many of the native wildfl owers are volunteers, he says, citing the showy orchis [correct spelling!]. But most of his plants were purchased at the annual native plant sales of the Delaware Nature Society, which Elliott calls the best such sale in the Mid-Atlantic region. Examples include the celandine poppy, wood phlox, and Virginia bluebells, which were planted and allowed to naturalize. Over the years, I ve developed a particular FASHION, CIRCUS, SPECTACLE: PHOTOGRAPHS BY SCOTT HEISER MARCH 8 JUNE 1, 2014 Scott Heiser s (1949 1993) evocative photographs feature fashion runways, circuses, dance competitions, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, and famous faces of the 1970s and 80s. This is the first retrospective for Heiser, a Wilmington native. See the exhibition after hours on select Friday nights during Art is After Dark. Visit delart.org for details. 2301 Kentmere Parkway Wilmington, DE 19806 302.571.9590 delart.org Organized by the Delaware Art Museum. This exhibition is generously supported by the Johannes R. and Betty P. Krahmer American Art Exhibition Fund. Additional support is provided by grants from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. Image: Andy Warhol (detail), 1981. Scott Heiser (1949 1993). Gelatin silver print, 9 x 6 inches. Estate of the Artist. 84 THE HUNT MAGAZINE spring 2014