Ugly-Cool floral trend: Freakebana

You’ve heard of Ikebana – the Japanese art of flower arranging where minimal floral materials are used to form elegant, striking, sculptural arrangements under strict rules of line and composition.

Freakebana is certainly a nod to the style – with minimal materials used in formal, lineal style arrangements, but we wouldn’t call it elegant – more ‘ugly-cool’, as described by Stella Bugbee of The Cut.

“Freakebana is the art of arranging whatever-the-hell, in a way that nods at the traditional Japanese art form, but subs out years of study for a naive, new-wave naturalism,” says Bugbee.

Enthusiasts are using what looks like whatever they have to hand to effect striking minimal arrangements, creating quirky art forms out of everyday objects – mostly organic in nature, but always with a dynamic mix of shape and colour.

It looks kooky, sure. Look closely however and you’ll find that a lot of thought and design actually goes into each piece and they’re strangely attractive. The style is super economical too as it uses minimal flowers and makes us think differently about the ‘less is more’ concept. 

Are you on board?

Here’s a round up of our favourites:

1. A freakebana a day…

2. Definitely left-of-field

3. Home spun

4. Form follows function

5. Current obsession

6. Our new vice

7. Trail blazer

Related:

This florist has a special way with flowers

Colour class: how to arrange flowers like a florist