When we were in Italy last month, we discovered Sia silk flowers at a home just outside of Bologna. We had no idea that the gorgeous vase of calla lilies next to the fireplace was fake, until the homeowner tipped us off. This European company has been in the business of making faux flowers since 1963...
Designer Sonja Ingegerd started Sia in Sweden, and the popularity of her silk flowers spread throughout Europe. In 1994, the Sia Group was established and the company headquarters were moved to France.
Sia is now an international company, with locations throughout Europe, Australia, Russia, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates. They don't have a U.S. location, although we did find some Sia flowers being sold through Amazon.com for between $20 and $50 for a dozen stems. (We found them by searching within Channel products.)
Sia's bouquets seem more like well-crafted sculpture than the unsubstantial plastic versions that many people imagine when they think of fake flowers. Made of silk and other materials, the petals are composed of layered colors that have a life-like presence.
For more information from the Sia site, click here.
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Hey, I'd rather dust them than have to buy new flowers once a week and feel extremely wasteful.
view ChrisGal's profile
I love Sia! Apart from the flowers, their accessories and decor items, pillows, frames, candleholders, mirrors etc are gorgeous!
www.afewprettythings.blogspot.com
view TPND's profile
and i'd rather dust them than have to clean up the partially digested version of the real thing that the cat has thrown up...
view duckumu's profile
The article link goes to a page of plus-size house coats.
http://www.nextag.com/sia-flowers/compare-html
view pxlchk1's profile
Plastic/ "silk" flowers are to fresh as stuffed animals are to pets.
view krunkinator's profile
I like everything in the fourth picture but the flowers....
Fake flowers are pretty for about the first half hour... then you consciously realize they are fake... and they become just an unnoticed dust catcher the rest of the time they are displayed....
I personally LOVE flowers but not liking to buy cut flowers because of their inevitable "dead" status or fake flowers because they are just dead... as a result i taught myself to grow flowers. I chose orchids. There is nothing like the reward of having something flowering for you.... and most orchid plants are indoor size appropiate....
view manu_pty's profile
I want to live in Photo #2!
view Emily the Cat's profile
Unless you see a great reproduction flower upclose it's hard to say you'll never go 'fake'. Instead of coughing up a dozen dark red callas at $75 a piece for a wedding, I scoured all over for realistic looking ones. They were so realistic a bridesmaid picked up the bouquet to smell them, and kept trying to smell them when she realized they had no scent.
view dallas10086's profile
You can find some really good quality silk flowers. They do cost a pretty penny sometims, but at least I can display them until I absolutely are sick of them instead of throwing away a vase of flowers every single week.
If I bought real flowers, I'd do it for a month and stop buying them because I would get really sick of spending the money on something that doesn't last a week. I'd rather see fake flowers than no flowers.
view ChrisGal's profile