Karla Smith-Brown is a floral artist and the founder of OLIVEE Floral, a Brooklyn-based floral design studio.

 

Karla’s lifelong enchantment with the unyielding beauty of nature serves as the foundation for her craft. Karla utilizes seasonal flora and possesses an instinctive discernment for color theory, creating dynamic compositions. 

 

As a first generation Canadian of Jamaican descent, Karla has always felt connected to her Caribbean heritage and how it has influenced her understanding of the world. Energized by the lush land, familiar scents, and distinct tastes of her maternal family’s homeland in Jamaica’s Saint Elizabeth Parish, Karla was inspired to hold on to that feeling and connection with nature by pursuing floristry. As a way to honor her heritage, Karla named her studio after her Great-Grandmother, Medorah Olivee Wright. 

 

OLIVEE is a sustainable floral studio where deliberate choices are made that protect the health of the earth and the people involved in the short lifespan of a singular cut flower. OLIVEE’s sustainable practices include: sourcing locally grown material, omitting the use of flower foam and other harsh chemicals in each design, composting flower waste, and working in tandem with artists who repurpose flower waste to create natural dyes.

Karla works in the fashion, beauty, design, gastronomic, and luxury spaces with clients including VOGUE, Interview, Wales Bonner, Bottega Veneta, Laquan Smith, Birkenstock, Dior Parfum, Champagne Bollinger, Hennessy, Google and many others. OLIVEE Floral also holds a floral residency at the award winning restaurant, Tatiana by Kwame Onwuachi at Lincoln Center.