Polo De'Marco Magazine Issue No.23 | Page 98

as a model, is gracious, warm, self-deprecating and funny. A Hollywood anecdote is never far from his lips, but all in good fun. When you work with the likes of Oprah, Cher, the Kardashians, and Tina Turner, life is a bed of roses … err, orchids. And that is the key to Leatham’s success: fun. “I create lasting memories, and I put smiles on people’s faces every day,” he said. “That’s the best part of my job, from when we do a huge installation, and people are amazed by the simplicity and beauty.” Leatham’s success is a fairytale come true. After his modeling career ended, he went back to Los Angeles not sure what he would do next. A friend mentioned the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills was looking for help with their floral displays and Leatham, with nary a day of experience, threw his petals in the ring. “Before then, I had never touched a flower, never even wanted to work with flowers!” he said. To his great surprise, he was hired and began designing the hotel’s lobby and public spaces. He began experimenting with positioning, color and style, and turned heads with his unexpected creations. “Four Seasons gave me that whole spectrum: I started making big, grand flower installations, so that helped me be the artist I am today.” A New Beginning Leatham’s career exploded in 1999 when he was recruited to design the lobby of the George V Hotel Paris, which re-opened as a Four Seasons after a fiveyear renovation. His previous work had so impressed its new owner, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, who gave Leatham carte blanche to design the venerated Parisian palace as he saw fit. His work soon became the hotel’s signature and provided the artist a global stage to showcase his many talents. He is known to use 13,000 stems a week and has an annual budget of $1.7 million per year (although some say it’s virtually unlimited). Leatham’s work at the George V has become an attraction into itself. Scores of visitors walk through the hotel’s revolving doors just to peek at his grand displays in the lobby, courtyard and public spaces. For the hotel’s 20th anniversary, he gargantuan black deers (one of which he stood on for an Instagram picture). “I think that’s what I want people to think of my work as timeless, bold statements of color and texture,” he said. “And when I work there’s a specific style: flowers leaning out the side of the vase, for example. I’m lucky as a designer to have a design that is characteristic to me and my personality. In fashion, you can look at Valentino and say, ‘That’s a Valentino red dress.’ The fact that you can look at a style of flowers and say, ‘That’s Jeff Leatham,’ makes me a lucky guy.” Simplicity The designer keeps everything clean, simple, and chic (known in the industry as the “Leatham Rules of 3”), which means bunching all of one type of flower, never mixing more than three types of flowers or colors and keeping everything monochromatic. “For me, the most important thing is just July 2020 Polo De’Marco