eatlower designer, creative, content creator: Cecilia Paganiniin art The flower girl, is the living example that following your dreams is always the right choice. We met her among the fragrant flowers of her boutique in Brescia
It is not difficult to recognize those who live with passion, and passion, for Cecilia Paganini, coincides with the love for the universe of flowers. A love that was cultivated over time and exploded one day by chance when he decided to take over a flower shop and leave his job as a manager in a supermarket chain. It was 2015. “I called my mother and told her: run, come see where my flower shop will be born!”, she explains on a sunny May afternoon, when she welcomes us to her boutique in via Milano, a neighborhood. on the regeneration street in Brescia where galleries and shops are opening today. In a context that is flourishing again, Cecilia decided to create, in 2019, the new headquarters of her La Fiorellaia project.
A multifunctional place where you can find potted plants and fresh flowers as well as a selection of neat items, underwear and magazines. Here everything smells of politeness, and with kindness and explosiveness Cecilia shows us the other areas of the shop. There it is laboratory where together with his team – made up of women (including Cecilia’s mother) and students who alternate between school and work – he prepares the arrangements for events and weddings and where floral art classes, workshops, seminars on botanical arrangements, garlands, jewelry with flowers, and much MORE. It is here that Cecilia shows us how to create one composition of fresh flowers, poppies, peonies, roses, colored carnations. Stems are cut, the best combinations are evaluated, petals are caressed until a composition is created total floral that reflects your personality or mood of the moment. “Flowers will never stop telling us who we are and what we desire, it’s a message we need to send to others but above all to ourselves,” says Cecilia.
“La Fiorellaia was my revenge – he continues – I stopped my studies too early and always felt at a disadvantage. When I opened the first store, in the province of Bedizzole, I had never worked with flowers. However, I knew I always wanted to do it. This project reminded me that there is incredible strength within me. My mind never stops thinking of new initiatives, new activities, new lessons to offer. My dream? Having a field of my own where I can grow my flowers. But now I have to keep my mind firmly in the present, Covid has been a very difficult time with events being moved, cancelled, we’re starting to pick our heads up again now, it hasn’t been easy,” he explains.
Yes, Covid. The new store at via Milano 43 had been open for a few months when the pandemic arrived. This is not the right time to expand the horizons of a project. “We had just moved here from the Bedizzole store when Covid broke out. Staying still when we wanted to fly high was the biggest challenge. However, now La Fiorellaia is growing a lot and today we are a team of 8 people.’ As she speaks, three large bouquets of sweet pea flowers arrive: “smell them, they are among the most fragrant, even if few know them,” she tells us enthusiastically. Cecilia is like that, a volcano of enthusiasm, ideas, projects that express values.
Like the one that led her to collaborate, during the Milanese Fuorisalone, with the Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council, organization that collaborates with artisans and designers for the emancipation of women on a social and professional level. For Erthi, Cecilia and her team created a magical installation that celebrated the wisdom and intelligence of handwork.
The beating heart of La Fiorellaia’s projects and ideas is the third level of the boutique, namely the creative, graphic, design and operational office. In a home-like space, they are scattered phrases that remind you that you love each other about how we are. Cecilia has always combined videos that show how to care for plants with photos and reflections that invite you to love yourself, take time to look deeply at yourself and welcome yourself in all your originality.
I like to always remember this: we are all wonderful in our own uniqueness. And flowers, in this, have a lot to teach us