The celebrated florist and stylist, Nikki Tibbles, talks about her 25-year ‘flower moment’ with iconic brand, Wild at Heart.
‘I can’t write, I can’t paint, I can’t draw, I’m not musical’, Nikki pauses, ‘but flowers for me are the perfect medium’. After her parents banned her from Art School, Nikki found herself working in advertising to try and fill the creative void. ‘Some friends asked me to help organise their wedding and do the flowers; I absolutely loved it’. She left Saatchi’s shortly after. ‘I went to go and do some courses, which was ridiculous because I was literally twice everyone’s age. At one point I had to make a water lily out of a pair of white tights and I was like, no, I don’t think this is going to happen. So I got a job in a high street flower shop for £2 an hour and was there for six months. Then I got my own studio, and The Island on Westbourne Grove became available. The rest is history, really’.
The Island, otherwise known as Turquoise Island, is the flagship store, which local resident Nikki applied for after receiving a letter through her door. Her beautiful and inviting displays spill out over the pavement and Wild at Heart has long been a Notting Hill institution. Nikki has also been the in-house florist at Liberty since 2008, drawing a bustling crowd on Great Marlborough Street as tourists and Instagrammers flock to be photographed next to her scene-stealing blooms.
Perhaps what really sets Nikki apart from the crowd, however, is her incredible event design. Wild at Heart’s client list is long and illustrious: ‘Anna Wintour and Hamish Bowles, Prada and MiuMiu and Chanel. All these incredible venues that we work at and all the events that we do abroad, from Italy through to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, France and Spain and Portugal. We’ve worked everywhere. It’s just been a joy, really. So I feel very lucky and very blessed. I have an amazing team – I couldn’t do anything without them.’
Not least, she tells me, the opening of her latest store on Weighhouse Street, Mayfair. She has great plans for the already stunning shop.
‘We’re going to have a candle room and a textile room, and then we’re going to have classes. So if you want to come and learn how to do calligraphy or paint wildflowers, or if there’s a book launch or a product launch, a talk about sustainability; we’re going to be curating classes from the Spring. Hopefully we’ll have two or three courses running every week. It’s really exciting’.
Nikki’s passion for her work is touching. I ask her if she’s mobbed by family and friends begging for help with their events, and she tells me she loves it. She also speaks so warmly of recent client, Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen. She designed the flowers and tabletop for the renewal of his vows and 60th birthday party in Lake Como. ‘It was incredibly beautiful to do because they’re wonderful’. She paints a vivid scene of Venetian chandeliers and napkins embroidered in gold thread.
Despite her phone never being off – ‘I have clients that call me from the middle of the night in LA or wherever’ – she winds down with her five dogs at her house in the countryside. ‘I have a farmhouse with 20 acres, a paddock and an orchard. And we can walk straight onto the South Downs so they love it, they have a great life’. She has recently been fostering the abandoned Bear, for whom she’s found a home in Scotland. ‘I’m literally so upset that he’s going, I cried all day yesterday. He’s the most beautiful dog.’ The Wild at Heart Foundation, founded by Nikki in 2006, aims to reduce the world’s 600 million stray dog population. She is clearly still very much involved even at a grassroots level, saving one dog at a time.
We sign off the call and I spend ages looking through mesmerising images of events she’s designed, with their mouth-watering and magical floral installations. I am excited to see what 2024 will bring for Wild at Heart and the new Weighhouse Street townhouse in particular, but let’s not wish the time away. For now, it’s all about those Christmas bouquets.
December, 2023
