It’s Thursday morning and Eric Buterbaugh is a bit tired. The celebrity floral designer — famous for his tight-knit cluster of famous friends like Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore, Gwen Stefani and Nicole Richie — has just returned from European getaway the night before and he’s running on three hours of sleep.
But he’s awake enough to respond to emails, a bonus for Martha Stewart who has just landed in Buterbaugh’s inbox. He takes a second to respond to the mogul from a private dining room inside Culina at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles where he’s hosting a press preview of his upcoming floral workshops. (Stewart is not the only famous person he’s communicating with this a.m., as music maestro David Foster pops in to say hello as does fashion scribe Derek Blasberg).
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Buterbaugh has been based at the starry hotel for 18 years as the Four Seasons resident floral designer, and for the first time ever, he’s sharing his skill set with the general public (gasp!) via quarterly workshops which kick off Oct. 6. (Buy tickets here.)
“We want them to be lively and fun. Some of them will be a bit … you know,” Buterbaugh laughs, referencing the liquid portion of the workshop — mimosas. “This has been my home for 18 years so it feels special to be doing this here.”
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And while the Four Seasons has been fortunate enough to keep him in residence, Buterbaugh recently branched out to launch a smelly side business not far away. Eric Buterbaugh Florals, located at 8271 Beverly Blvd., boasts his debut collection of fragrances (also available online at ebflorals.com) — 10 pure floral scents bottled in crystal flacons and sold for upwards of $300 for 100 milliliters.
It’s not cheap, but the man knows about presentation (his clientele also includes fashion houses like Tory Burch, Michael Kors, Dior, Valentino, Ferragamo and Cartier) and marketing. We especially love the tagline: “A fragrance for every dirty pretty thing.”
Speaking of pretty things, in case you were wondering, Stewart stopped by Buterbaugh’s shop later in the day. And while we didn’t get an official update on her schedule, hopefully she didn’t stay too late as the man needed to sleep off that jet lag.
