Since President Chester A. Arthur embraced the glory of Tiffany stained glass in the 1880s, Americans have looked to the White House as an arbiter of national style. Teddy Roosevelt turned the house into an icon of Colonial Revivalism in the early 1900s, while Jacqueline Kennedy championed Franco-American elegance 60 years later. So what about the current administration? Much remains to be seen, but the work of floral designer Laura Dowling is going to be a major part of what might be called Obama Chic.

Dowling, owner of Intérieurs et Fleurs in Alexandria, Virginia, is the new official White House florist. She is a passionate Francophile who has studied at L’Ecole des Fleurs in Paris since 2002, and until recently has hosted what she calls “special fleur-arranging soirées” at Pierre Deux locations around the country. She prefers to not discuss her White House projects, but a scan of Dowling’s website indicates that her preference is for loose, lush arrangements that look just-picked from the garden, the natural materials handled with joyful exuberance and a sense of surprise, even eccentricity.

Dowling loves orchids because of their butterfly-like blossoms and vivid jewel-tone colors, but monochromatic arrangements are fine by her too, if there are enough textures (rough, smooth, spiky, et cetera) to make the composition lively. She likes to incorporate trailing vines and feathery foliage into bouquets “to create dimension and add lightness.” She wraps containers in leaves, moss, or stems of wheat to make the container and the arrangement become one entity, and she advocates using inexpensive flowers such as daisies and carnations in massive displays that deliver visual punch at modest cost. Dowling is a big fan of threading arrangements with what she calls dancing branches to add a sense of movement. And the Projects section of her website highlights the floral designer's take on holiday wreaths, complete with step-by-step instructions, including an unexpected seasonal door decoration composed of potatoes and onions in shades of purple.

So far, we’ve seen only one example of Dowling’s work in her official capacity, but it was a doozy of a debut. For the Obamas’ first state dinner (top), on November 24, honoring the visit of India’s prime minister, she complemented the round tables draped in apple-green linen by topping them with lush, eye-popping arrangements that pay homage to the peacock, India’s national bird—sweet peas, roses, and hydrangeas in powerful shades of purple, plum, and fuchsia.

See more of Dowling's projects, below:

Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza, courtesy Flickr; Arrangements by Kevin Allen

Mitchell Owens
Editor at Large, ELLE DECOR