Born in 1973 in Taiwan, Alfie Lin is famous for his contemporary floral designs with a series of awards such as Art Display & Decoration Committee of China Kylin Award, Taiwan Display and Decoration Award TADD, Taiwan Interior Design Award – TID Award of Space Installation Art. He also designed the wedding flowers for the wedding dinner of Jay Chou and Kun Ling. Internationally, Alfie Lin's reputation grew even further when the "father of Hong Kong interior design" Kenneth Ko invited him to be the floral designer for a gala dinner at a castle in Scotland in 2017.
Mr. Alfie Lin and his wife, Ms. Ivy Chen in an exclusive interview with Travellive.
A florist studied...marine engineering
Despite his long history of artistic achievements, few people know that Alfie Lin started his career as a delivery man at a flower shop. The 49-year-old man shared that he had no idea about flower arrangement art. Although Alfie Lin showed a talent for drawing from his father, an amateur painter, when he was a child, he chose to major in marine engineering when he was in college because his family was worried that his artistic career would not be financially stable.
“I was not good at studying, so I kept failing and had to retake courses in college. It took me seven years to graduate. The only class I got above 90 was art,” Lin shared humorously.
His career as a floral designer was born out of serendipitous luck. After completing his military service, a friend asked him if he would like to be a delivery boy for a flower shop. From the very beginning of his flower delivery career, Alfie Lin felt that flowers were part of life’s beautiful moments.
“In the morning, I delivered flowers to a guy who wanted to give them to his girlfriend. At noon, I delivered flowers to a husband who wanted to surprise his wife. In the evening, I delivered flowers to a funeral. Every day was a different adventure, meeting different people, experiencing different emotions." With that vibration, Alfie Lin's relationship with flowers also began from there.
From a delivery man with a love for flowers, Alfie Lin became a famous floral designer.
The one who listens to the flowers speak
At the flower arrangement workshop, he happily joked: "I like flowers because they are silent. Light-headed! But also because they are silent, flowers have a very different way of conversing." Each flower has its own language, in addition to being able to send special messages on behalf of a person, the image of flowers can also touch sensitive and delicate places in the soul.
When explaining the importance of flowers, Alfie Lin shared his own feelings: "Flowers, once cut for display or to give as gifts, often do not last long, but on important occasions they always appear. Because flowers are like those special moments, short but beautiful. They remind us of past memories, urging us to cherish the moments of our short life. Each flower has its own meaning, but when given to someone, the flower is given a private meaning."
The life cycle of a flower is like life, short but beautiful.
Alfie Lin has always loved designing wedding flowers.
That is why Alfie Lin has always loved designing wedding flowers. He always tries to combine many different materials and styles to bring a unique sense of solemnity to the special day of one's life.
Alfie Lin told us about the wedding of Troy and Emma held in Yangshuo County (Guangxi Province, China). The groom Troy and the bride Emma chose a resort renovated from an old sugar factory located in the heart of majestic limestone mountains. After a site survey, Alfie Lin's design team decided to turn the wild reed garden next to the resort into a wedding hall. Since the wedding took place at the end of April, he and his teammates carefully checked the flowers that would bloom early in the year, which seeds were suitable for the local soil and they planted them from the beginning of January. And on the wedding day, the bride Emma was accompanied by her father in a sea of marigolds.
Bride Emma was accompanied by her father in the middle of a garden of marigolds
The longest wedding flower design project he and his colleagues have ever done
In addition to using native flowers from the Yangshuo region, Alfie Lin also used peonies that bloom in April and May for the flower gate and the wedding hall. He hoped that whoever witnessed this beautiful wedding would always remember the garden in the heart of the limestone mountains, where the Lijiang River listened to the vows of a hundred years of happiness, every time they saw a peony.
Alfie Lin always believes that: "The most important thing is not the flowers but our emotions." For each project, he always finds out what the customer wants, the stories or the flowers they love. Because a wedding is a personal event, the emotions that the wedding flowers decorated in the party also need to carry messages that touch the emotions of the bride and groom.
Wedding flowers carry messages that touch the emotions of the bride and groom.
Following Mother Nature in Search of Indigenous Identity
For Alfie Lin, becoming a florist is not about being the most beautiful flower arranger. For a work to "speak", he himself must also respect the expressive ability of nature. Alfie Lin always finds inspiration for his works in nature, he observes the growth principles of plants, the structures that nourish them. The materials used in flower arrangements should also put the purpose of prolonging the life of plants and flowers first. That is why Alfie Lin prefers to use native plants of each place he visits to create installation art works. Any plant species is suitable to become a work, from mushrooms, wild plants, or even moss.
Any plant is suitable to become a work of art, from mushrooms, wild plants, or even moss..
Of course, there are also designs that require cultural differences, for example, a client who wants a traditional oriental piece to be placed in a classic European location. Alfie Lin's job is to prioritize the local flora and place them in a fresh creative space.
Alfie Lin’s efforts to bring the local breath into each of his works were inspired by a trip to Taiwan with a flower shop owner in Germany where he had interned. While passing by a rice field, this international visitor wanted to stop the car to take a picture, which surprised Alfie Lin. In response to his curiosity, the German visitor said that this was the first time they had seen a rice field with their own eyes, as there was no such scene in the Nordic countries. This experience made Alfie Lin realize that he had missed out on a lot of local landscapes and natural resources. And he thought that his customers would also regretfully miss out if he did not bring the natural beauty of their country into his works.
Alfie Lin always prioritizes the nativeness of plants in the places he visits.
Alfie Lin was very excited to tell us about the special places he found in Vietnam. He was very curious about the tropical flora here and was extremely impressed by the trees with very large leaves, the fresh flower markets with many different species. In particular, the place he could not miss the most was Da Lat - the city of thousands of flowers. With both a cool climate like the temperate zone and a geological system of a tropical region, the flora in Da Lat is extremely diverse and rich, making Alfie Lin wish to spend time here to learn and learn more about trees and flowers.
Alfie Lin is excited about the tropical flora in Vietnam
The simplicity, freshness, and sophistication of nature are always an endless source of inspiration and ideas. "Just follow Mother Nature. Observe the beauty of a flower beneath a shy bud, see how velvet petals stand out next to a bare branch. Nature is inherently beautiful, the rest is our job to delicately rearrange its position." - Alfie Lin shared.
*We would like to thank Park Hyatt Saigon Hotel for their support.
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