Lifestyle
The Way of Flowers
Last weekend, in spite of a tsunami that swelled Hawaii’s shores on Friday, Neiman Marcus Ala Moana and Honolulu’s Sogetsu Ikebana School celebrated art, fashion and flowers in an elegant exhibition called “Journey Through Paradise…and Beyond.”
The Sogetsu Ikebana philosophy, explained sensei (teacher) Linda Hamasaki, is based on the belief that flowers are beautiful in nature and man cannot compete with that beauty, but when you cut a flower you bring new life to it, infusing the blossom with the floral artist’s spirit. By communicating with the flower, she said, “You can create something new and give the flower material new life.”
Hamasaki assigned each of her 41 students a particular area of the store and asked them to create an ikebana arrangement that would complement that designer or department. Flowers were donated by Green Point Nurseries on the Big Island. Students selected flowers and foliage and combined it with found, recycled branches, leaves and twigs.
“I tried to match the person to the fashions or areas. Knowing their abilities and their personalities we determined where they would best fit,” Hamasaki explained.
Joyce Tomonari, wife of Neiman Marcus Ala Moana’s Vice-President and General Manager Al Tomonari, created an artful arrangement in the Jil Sander boutique, a simple, subtle pine needle arrangement in keeping with the minimalist German designer’s aesthetic.
For the front windows Tomonari and Kristen Chan fashioned whimsical hats from materials such as eucalyptus, pine needles, banana leaves and bamboo.
There were 43 arrangements throughout the store, ranging from small table top pieces to life-size installations along the sides of the escalators.
To complement the exhibition, Mariposa restaurant offered a special Sogetsu luncheon menu featuring a combination of Hawaiian and Japanese dishes: mahi mahi with soba noodles, soy-nari vinaigrette and pineapple-tomato lomi, with green tea ice cream for dessert.
