This time of year, as temperatures toggle between optimistically mild and crushingly cold, the memes about New York’s 12 seasons of weather start making the rounds. This is not to be confused with last week’s calendar-dictated arrival of spring. Right now, according to a website keeping tabs, we are hovering in the Spring of Deception; ahead of us, in all likelihood, lies a Third Winter, followed by—even less fun—The Pollening.
What keeps New Yorkers spiritually afloat in this stretch are the flowers. Magnolias in voluptuous bloom on a neighborhood corner. Pioneering, semi-trampled daffodils in sidewalk gardens. Quince branches at the flower market. And, of course, those bottled up in the guise of perfume. As beauty companies angle to capitalize on a booming market, spring ushers in those bouquets too. Thus comes a fresh iteration of Viktor & Rolf’s Flowerbomb—named Tiger Lily after the speckled flame-orange bloom—with a new campaign face in Emily Ratajkowski, who signed on with the brand last year.
While this is not Ratajkowski’s first turn in the beauty ambassador space, she is pleased to find herself aligned with Viktor & Rolf’s flagship perfume franchise. “I think people have this sense of, ‘Oh, it’s just this corporate whatever,’” she says, with the industry awareness we expect from the author of My Body, a book of essays that explores her early years in modeling and notions of commodification and ownership that arose. “But I met the man who was the nose [for the original Flowerbomb],” she continues, “and it’s really given me an appreciation for all the work that goes into building these fragrances.” After all, revisions in perfumery are called drafts; a finished work in the olfactive realm can be as layered as a novel, as personal as a memoir.
Viktor&Rolf
Flowerbomb Tiger Lily Eau de Parfum
Sephora
For Ratajkowski, who grew up in Southern California not far from San Diego, scent can be a nostalgia trip. “I am always, especially with beauty, trying to chase that feeling of being on a beach, having spent the day in the sun, and getting ready for evening after you have sand a little bit in your hair,” she says. Tiger Lily, with accords that tie in coconut milk, mango, and the namesake flower, is a fast-track to vacation mode. “It has this tropical sexiness to it,” she says, envisioning a perfect day in Mexico: reading in the sun, margarita at lunch, slip dress for dinner with friends. Flowers, wielded in the best ways, have the power to shift the narrative. To that end, here follows a roving conversation about exactly that, from Georgia O’Keeffe watercolors to Loewe’s anthurium obsession. Stop and smell, if you will.
Vanity Fair: Tell me about your childhood bedroom decor. Were you a part of the floral bedspread, late-stage Laura Ashley cohort?
Emily Ratajkowski: Absolutely. My mom loved Laura Ashley. I actually remember at some point when I was 9 or 10, she was like, “Laura Ashley’s going out of business”—which was not accurate, but somehow somebody had told her that—and she went and bought even more Laura Ashley. So there was a lot of Laura Ashley in my home. But I think by the time I was 12, or maybe even younger, I was like, I’m too cool for this. I painted my bedroom walls blue, pink, and lime green.
All at the same time?
Yeah, each wall had its own color, and I just thought it was so cool. Of course, I made the room super dark.
What flowers did you grow up with in Southern California?
There were a lot of cactuses with flowers. We also had [ornamental] plum trees in my front yard, so those were really beautiful. I always think about eucalyptus and Torrey pines, which is a pine tree that’s regional to San Diego and North County specifically—they each have really distinct smells.
Did you go through any phases with scent as a teen—a certain floral body mist you were obsessed with, or a perfume that crystallized your 16-year-old self?
It was Be Delicious by DKNY. It was shaped like a [green] apple, and I always had a fantasy about living in New York. The ad had this big New York skyline and this really beautiful girl with green eyes and freckles, and I just remember being like, That’s who I want to be. I would douse my clothes in that fragrance. It was sickening [laughs].
Speaking of New York moments, what is your go-to deli flower?
I love the sunflower. Just like a very bright, erect sunflower is classic for me.
What kind of flower would you break the bank for?
I really love peonies. I love how they evolve, and I just think they’re so rich. I like the deep pink ones.
This is a half-joke, but let’s play Fuck, Marry, Kill with flowers: orchid, rose, and anthurium.
I would probably marry anthurium. I just think they’re cool. So weirdly sexual. I think I would fuck the orchid, but it has to be more unique than the orchids that you see.
Not a Whole Foods orchid.
There’s so many special orchids—I don’t love the white basic whatever. And then I guess kill roses. They don’t do that much for me unless they’re a really unique color, and I like them when they’re a little bit more open. But I never buy roses.
So many rose varietals have been bred for this now cliché purpose, mostly stripped of their scent. Anyway, thank you for playing that game. When you think back on times when you’ve received flowers, does a fond memory stick out—celebrating motherhood or a career highlight or something else entirely?
Well, I’ve ordered myself flowers in big moments of my life as a way to celebrate. Recently I had a chapter close in a really good way, and the first thing I did was order myself a giant bouquet of flowers, with peonies involved and some other weird things. That was really cool. I also worked with Brrch for a launch event once on the Lower East. We just had her do this insane backdrop, basically, and it was so cool. It was like a sculpture.
What is your favorite travel memory with flowers? Have you been to one of those California superbloom moments, or some tropical place where the night-blooming flowers were intoxicating?
I grew up near the Carlsbad Flower Fields, so I remember going there. I used to live in downtown LA, so my favorite thing to do was to go to the flower market. You walk into this very industrial space, and there’s just every flower you could imagine, all wholesale. I used to just go crazy. Actually, it’s probably one of the things I miss the most about living in California.
In the canon of painting and photography, whose work with flowers do you love?
I can only think of Georgia O’Keeffe right now in terms of paintings with flowers, and hers were obviously so interesting and abstracted. I’ve seen her work a few times, and I’m a big fan. When you’re in person, you can really see the texture and how she painted in such a cool way. And what’s the famous painting that woman did? The Rose [by Jay DeFeo], which is just [as much] sculptural. I think it’s at the Whitney.
If you were to do an Anne Geddes–style photo shoot with your son, what flower would you style him as, and what seems to encapsulate his persona?
Oh my God, that’s tough. He’s so warm, so I’m trying to think of something that blossoms—maybe a peony. He also has such a roundness about him. He’s such a cherub baby, and he’s so sweet. There are also layers to him.
You’re wearing all black today. Do you have any floral prints in your closet? What are your likes and dislikes when it comes to flowers on your clothing?
I’m weird about floral prints. I used to wear them more when I was into vintage. My friend Harley Viera-Newton has a brand, HVN, and she does a great job with florals. I also really enjoy florals when they’re really oversized, in unexpected colors, not too feminine.
Flowers have turned up in unexpected ways on the runways in recent seasons: Rodarte’s embrace of baby’s breath, or Simone Rocha layering long-stemmed roses under tulle. Is there an actual flower that you would adorn yourself with as spring comes along?
I went to the Loewe show a couple of seasons ago wearing a literal sculpture of an anthurium that was tied onto my back. I loved that. It was cold, but it was so worth it. It looked really good.
I am somebody who really enjoys flowers, and I like arranging them myself. It’s a very relaxing hobby of mine. There’s something we take for granted about flowers. I find when I’m getting a little depressed or down, buying yourself flowers is a really wonderful way to lighten up your room and your spirits and just do something nice for yourself.
I do think that when your work is computer-based or cerebral—whether it’s writing a book, podcasting, all the things that you’ve done—that it’s really important to step aside and work with your hands.
It’s just so instinctual as well. I’m writing right now, so I’m doing a lot of work that’s private, which feels really nice. The podcast was the opposite of that. I was doing three episodes a week and then immediately putting it out. It’s just so nice to return to my own schedule.
One of the writer’s guides published this year recommends cranking out a thousand words a day. What is your schedule? Because it is really hard.
It’s really, really hard. I mean, tomorrow’s a writing day for me. My son goes to school at 9 a.m., so that’s when it starts for me. And I would bet you that I don’t even really start to work on it until noon. That’s the hard part about being a parent, right? Then he comes home, has a nap, and I’ll basically have to be in mom mode at 4 p.m. He’ll go down at 7 p.m. and I am not going anywhere tomorrow night, so hopefully I won’t be so tired and I’ll just be able to dive right back in. But there is no secret to it, especially as a parent and a single mom. It’s extremely difficult, but I’m figuring it out.
I remember speaking with Clint Smith about juggling fatherhood and poetry, and he mentioned squeezing in writing while in the coffee shop queue or school pickup line. Have you discovered little fruitful moments?
Totally. All of my best writing, or the idea for it, happens in the middle of the night for me. That’s always been true, before I was even a mom, but I think even more so now. I usually start writing in bed. People are always like, “That means your brain doesn’t reset when you actually have to go to sleep.” But I kind of like that because sometimes I’ll be thinking about it half in a hypnagogia type of space and be able to have really good ideas. I also really recommend workshops and classes. You don’t have to love your teacher or the people who are in the class. Just for me, the deadlines and the structure really helped me. Setting my own deadlines almost never works.
Do you have a green thumb?
I don’t. I have some plants. There’s one that came from my best friend’s boyfriend—it was a cutting from his grandmother’s plant, and it stresses me the fuck out because I’m, like, going to kill his grandmother. It’s the kind of plant that you can tell if it needs water immediately, so thank God. But they were like, “We’re just going to leave it here. You’re cool with that? Because we’re moving to Brazil.” My joke with him is: “I feel like your grandmother in my hands.” And finally they were like, “You know, my grandmother is still alive. Her spirit isn’t in this plant.” So I’m doing my best.
The post Emily Ratajkowski on Wearable Anthurium, Laura Ashley Bedding, and Viktor & Rolf’s Newest Fragrance appeared first on Vanity Fair.