WHO WE ARE
WHO WE ARE: Evie Harrison
Eve Bud Blooms
Story by Izzy McMillan. Photograph by Henry Kidman.
Inspiration has surrounded floral stylist Evie Harrison from her very beginning. Growing up on the Fleurieu with her winemaker mother and artist father, she spent her youth surrounded by vineyards and the ocean. In 2006 Evie’s family moved from Onkaparinga to The Mill – a beautiful character-filled property at Middleton. ‘Dad’s a big surfer, so being down there with the local art scene and small community vibes is what they wanted,’ says Evie. For Evie, family and place have played a vital role in the development of the strong, motivated and self-driven individual she is today. At fifteen she moved to France with her family, going to school in her new non-English speaking community. Spending much of her free time with her mum, Evie found France provided endless inspiration. She describes going into local florist shops and marveling at their botanical creations. ‘Mum would always say how cool it would be to have something like that one day,’ she says. After returning to Australia to complete her schooling, Evie began working in wholesale floristry on her aunt and uncle’s flower farm. ‘I’d be making native pre-made bunches to go to markets in Victoria and New South Wales, and my aunt would time me. I had to make a bouquet in under a minute and a half,’ she remembers. Then came work experience at florist Austin Bloom, a busier and more demanding environment than her aunt’s flower farm. ‘That’s where I really experienced how the floristry business works,’ she says. ‘Three AM starts, huge hours, working with a team of people and florals on a larger scale. That’s when I was exposed to the events side, not just making bouquets.’ Gaining experience and exposure, Evie began to envision the kind of work she really wanted to do. ‘I was working for a very ‘in demand’ floral retailer, again working massive hours with high turnovers. I learned a lot but I began to feel that if I had creative freedom I could bring a unique style to the world of botanicals,’ says Evie.
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Eight years later, Evie still has the same passion and love for floristry as she did when she first started at the age of nineteen. Slowly figuring out her niche, Evie has tried it all, from weddings and events, to large installations and huge floral design challenges. One of her biggest installations was for an Indigenous exhibition at Bird in Hand winery, where she collected, hand-tied and hung spinifex puffs to create a floating sea of stars across the venue’s 250 square metre roof. She aims to do more of this creative concept work in the future. As Evie talks to me via Zoom, her beloved Kelpie, Cruiser, snoozes happily on the couch alongside her. She explains that with him and her partner Tom by her side, she’s been able to manage the unpredictable tides of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of course, like many small, local businesses, she’s taken hit after hit as weddings and events continue to fall victim to the virus. Within one week, she’d lost eighteen months’ worth of business. ‘I reached out to a lot of my friends and colleagues in the industry and asked them where they were at. Everyone was just scrambling,’ she says. Through each twist and turn in her career so far, Evie has not only developed her botanical vision but has also developed her sense of self as a creative and business owner. ‘I went through a time when I was really unsure, and everything I created seemed flawed,’ she says. ‘I think getting over that and realising that someone might like this, and not being so self-critical, that’s been the biggest step in my career.’ Adapting through COVID was just another hurdle to get over. And the most important question I could ask her – what kind of flower does she feel the deepest connection with? She laughs and with a little thought narrows it down to her top five. ‘If I can imagine them coming together, they make the most beautiful bouquet. So, I’d say frilly iris, ranunculus, roses, two-toned raspberry cosmos and feverfew.’ Evie’s favourite part of living on the Fleurieu is being able to head to the beach after a long day working and take a refreshing dip. She also speaks highly of her community, and how grateful she is that people are so willing and eager to support local businesses during these difficult times. ‘And, really,’ she says, ‘I’ve always lived somewhere in the region, so it feels like home.’
