Though tasteful, we admittedly wished the current selection revealed a bit more of De Swert's playful creativity like exhibited in his book Nico De Swert: Living With Flowers. Look at this amazing arrangement of red Berlin roses and lemon leaves fashioned into the shape of open melons, and like me, you might end up wanting more.
I actually prefer the Nico De Swert selections for to the Todd Oldham range. Don't get me wrong. I'm a big Todd fan, but I think that the Nico De Swert arrangements have a wider-reaching, more mainstream appeal with nicely understated, modern edge. The TO range seems too quirky and niche-targeted for my tastes.
I completely agree with you regarding Nico's arrangements. They are more modern + the containers are absolutely gorgeous. FTD actually followed 1800Flowers.com. My recollection is that they started this category of high end flowers with Jane Carroll and Jane Packer about three years ago.