Tell me a little about where you come from. What was your childhood like, and how did your family’s Argentinian roots shape it?
I am from Los Angeles but my parents are both from Argentina. My childhood was fun and adventurous, as my parents loved to travel. A little chaotic, as one would expect, with two immigrant parents without much support and trying to make a new country work for them. I spent a lot of my vacations with family in Argentina, in Patagonia, horseback riding, swimming in lakes, hiking, making beach bonfires, and “asados” as we call them, with my cousins who were mostly boys. It was wild and inspiring and really shaped who I am and what I value.
 |
| Sophia’s childhood, from the easel to horseback in Patagonia with her cousins. |
Your father had a pasta restaurant, and the Fig Tree in Venice Beach when you were little. What do you remember about being there, the people, the food, the smells?
I loved visiting the restaurant, as I am quite obsessed with food. Apparently my first word was “shrimp.” My dad is an amazing cook and instilled a love of food in me. Visiting the restaurant with family and friends was always really fun – I felt special there because all the cooks and servers were so sweet to me, and I loved seeing all the adults having so much fun. It gave me a good sense of community that I really appreciate. I loved falling asleep on the chairs while they gabbed all night. Later on in my teenage years, I felt so happy to be able to bring my friends for a meal, to have a space for us to connect and feel like a home away from home.
Your mother seems to have had such an influence on your eye and your sense of beauty, especially through things like her collection of magazines. What do you feel you inherited from her?
My mom was really into interiors, and my father as well! My mother and I used to go to flea markets most weekends – it was one of our favorite things to do together. She was always rearranging the house, looking through World of Interiors magazines. I used to think I would become an interior designer, and in some ways my work feels very aligned with this – in the creation of little worlds and beauty, collecting, arranging, and styling. She was such a tasteful and elegant person. She was also very thoughtful and inquisitive, and she loved to read and write in her journals. I definitely feel I inherited this from her, and I’m so grateful to have witnessed that and absorbed it, as writing is always something that brings me back to myself when I need grounding.
 |
| Sophia with her mother's collection of World of Interiors, still a constant source of inspiration. |
Did losing her change the way you thought about home, family, or what you wanted your life to look like?
Losing her when I was 25 definitely made me feel like I had to grow up fast. I had to deal with family business things and felt some of my carefree youth went out the window. But I do feel that things happen for a reason. I feel blessed by her, like she’s my guardian angel. I moved home to LA from NY a few years after she passed. I wanted to be closer to my brother and father, because I wanted to spend more time with them. I don’t know if I would have gone home had that not happened.
You told me that while living in New York you were really missing nature, and then one day you walked into a flower shop in DUMBO and were completely mesmerized. Can you take me back to that moment? What did you see, and how did it make you feel?
Emily Thompson’s flower shop was like a little shop of wonders; truly a special little jewel box shop that was filled to the brim with interesting flowers, preserved bugs, vases, and relics, even a decorative sculpture she called “the guillotine”! She considers herself a butcher of flowers, among other things, and as you can imagine, that name got my inspiration churning. She has a sculpture background and such an interesting point of view that is just so inspiring. I was so excited when I discovered her and her work, and it changed the course of my life. Also, all the people who worked for her felt like home, all artists, many of them from other countries – it was just meant to be. We all became great friends and felt so happy to carry her vision out into the world.
You learned flowers through a sculptor. Do you think that shaped the way you work today, the way you think about form, texture, and composition?
Yes, definitely! I think about the space, how it is in conversation with the pieces we make, the weight and presence they carry, their sculptural shapes and compositions, and how they change a space.
 |
 |
| Sophia at work among rosehip branches, letting their overgrown shapes decide where the arrangement goes. | Chestnut branches and their bright green burrs, set beside shells and sculptural ceramics. |
You told me you used to forage palm trees in Malibu yourself because you wanted to use the material in your work. Then it became a trend, and suddenly you could actually buy it. What made you notice something that everyone else was overlooking?
I used to forage palm dates and palm inflorescences, which are the little braid-like lavender flowers that dangle from a palm tree. When I returned to LA from NY after becoming a florist, I looked at LA with new eyes – it literally felt like I was looking through a treasure chest of jewels. I would drive around in awe of the abundance of beauty; I had never really noticed or appreciated the plants and flowers growing up here until I started working with them and seeing them as fodder for my work. It was a newfound reverence – I was so amazed by the jewels that hang from palm trees, which are often discarded by gardeners in the green bins. I would take them out of the green bins whenever I would see them and use them in my work. Nowadays you can get these at the flower market, which I am very happy about. No more having to dumpster dive for my materials!
If you could bottle one memory from your life – not necessarily a perfume, but the smell, feeling, place, and people in that moment – what would it be?
Argentina or the ocean with my family. No phones, completely lost in an adventure, following around my cousins like a little puppy. The smell of asado, wood burning, summer air, guiso on the stove, dancing way past midnight with friends and family.
What are you drawn to right now?
I am always very inspired by music, fashion and textiles, interiors magazines and books, the ocean, travel, time spent in nature. Lately I have been looking through old World of Interiors magazines, I have a collection from the 90’s and 2000’s that belonged to my mom – these magazines, plus some time in nature or traveling get my imagination churning and are the perfect recipe for inspiration. Rosalía’s latest tour for her album LUX was incredibly inspiring, and has definitely been on my mind recently – it was such an amazing show, so layered – I loved everything about it, from the music, the costumes, the orchestra, the lyrics represented visually, the colors; her juxtaposition of softness and intensity is something I relate to and think about in our work a lot!
 |
| Sophia in Buenos Aires, in front of the house her great-great-grandparents designed. |
When you created the arrangements for Maison Louis Marie's Silver Lake store, what did you respond to in the space, and what did you want the flowers to bring to it?
I really loved the wood tones and the general neutral palette in the space, and wanted to create something with that same earthy contrast. The smokebush in the arrangements echoes the wood tones throughout the space, and the alliums have a lighter hue that reflects the brightness. A touch of blue delphinium always makes me feel like I am walking through a field of wildflowers as I remember seeing them grow wild in the countryside in France. I wanted them to feel organic and wild, as many of the Maison Louis Marie scents capture this essence to me.
When you’re creating an arrangement, what role does scent play alongside color, shape, and texture? How does it enter into your process?
There are so many amazing scents that I love and are super unexpected. While I love the smell of gardenia, garden roses and jasmine for example, I also really love the more subtle unexpected scents, that you may not notice upon first sniff, but definitely as you are arranging and cutting the florals. In a sense, these more subtle smells are reserved for the florist or arranger, which I love - a special little moment you may miss if you’re not present in the process. The smell of a smokebush branch for example, which we used for your store, feels very bright and grassy. The scent of a dahlia stem and leaves, just as you cut it, has a similar scent that softly permeates and fills the room.
 |
 |
| An arrangement of smokebush and wild greenery anchors the Silver Lake store. | Another of Sophia's arrangements, tucked among the collection. |
What does your world smell like right now?
We’ve been using fennel and smokebush nonstop, so I definitely have that smell lingering in the studio and in my mind; I’ve been recipe testing for my best friend’s cookbook, so lots of delicious kitchen smells (look out for it! It’s coming out next year by the Culinistas). Tonight was a Mediterranean inspired dish with roasted olives, grapes, shallots and chicken.
Spend some time with the Maison Louis Marie collection. Which scents or products are you most drawn to?
The hand creams are amazing, especially needed as a florist, and I really love the No. 13 Nouvelle Vague scent- fig and muguet were two of my mom’s favorite scents, and this always reminds me of her. I also love the perfume oil No. 10 Aboukir - I love a scent that isn’t too sweet, and that feels more earthy and woody.
 |
|
Notes of No. 10 Aboukir: lemon and eucalyptus over a woody base of cedarwood and vetiver. |
