Profile Kumi KANEMOTO / Flower Designer　

Kumi Kanemoto began her career as a florist after graduating from Bournemouth and Poole College in England. She has been involved with flowers since her early twenties and in 1998 traveled to England to continue her studies. She started working professionally as a florist after gaining the nationally recognized National Vocational Qualification and a General National Vocational Qualification in Art and Design. She spent time in Holland at the Boerma Institute floral design school and after spending a short time studying in France returned to Japan. She went back to France to study civilization at a Sorbonne affiliated language school and after completing her studies began a long period of on the job training under famous florists such as Sandrine Letailleur, Eric Chauvan at Un jour de fleurs and Stephane Chapelle at Vertumne　and was in fact the first Japanese student for both Sandrine Letailleur and Eric Chauvan. While studying with these Parisian florists she gained valuable experience working as a member of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe decoration team and for Tiffany & Company, the Hotel de Crillon as well as projects at various three star restaurants and with prominent celebrities.

In 2004 she gained experience working as an assistant and interpreter in l’ecole des fleurs in the top hotel in Paris the Hotel de Crillon. She also succeeded in overcoming what is said to be an enormous obstacle for many, in managing to change her status of residence from a student visa to a professional freelance visa and with this official acknowledgement gaining the freedom to work professionally in France. Now with Her base in Paris she is continuing to develop her activities as a professional Parisian florist by supervising the flower and table collection atelier Tige. Her Parisian floral style using seasonal flowers with the theme of ‘charming maturity’ has become extremely popular among her clients which range from overseas students, Parisian office workers, residents and visitors, flight attendants, and sometimes even clients from Taiwan.

Using cultural exchange between herself and the florists working in Paris as a focal point in her original capacity as a Parisian florist, she is also an active table decorator, event producer and flower demonstration commentator working between Tokyo and Paris. In recent years she has also established a reputation as a promoter through introducing the work of new Parisian florists to the world.

In 2005 and 2006 she took part in IFEX the biggest flower show in Japan as a demonstration show commentator. She appeared again in IFEX in October 2007 for the third year running this time acting as both a coordinator and providing a commentary for a demonstration by Yannick Suznjev.

he is now working successfully as a coordinator and photographer for ‘Best Flower Arrangement’ magazine in which she covers the Paris flower scene and various Parisian florists. She has also worked as a photographer at the Bulgarian Rose Festival and covered an event at the British Embassy in Paris as well as providing supporting material for the free newspaper ‘Eclatant’. She is at present working in collaboration with Yannick Suznjev providing courses for overseas students, and handling overseas weddings and event planning. Of all the Japanese residents in Paris who have succeeded in attaining official permission to work as florists, she is one of only a very few who have attained a national qualification recognized throughout Europe. She has now been a flower coordinator resident in Paris for 17 years.