Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PARIS — An Ogden native will be knighted and receive the Order of the Arts & Letters award on Nov. 3 for his world-renowned floral arrangements.
Jeff Leatham grew up in Ogden, attending Bonneville High School and later Weber State University. He said he had studied design a little bit in high school, but never really pursued it.
He began working as a manager for Gap, eventually moving to Los Angeles in 1991. After deciding to change career paths, Leatham said he was in between jobs when a friend lined him up with the Beverly Hills SubRosa Floral Design store in 1994.
“That’s kind of how my career started with flowers, just kind of as a fluke,” Leatham said. “I just started because I needed the job, basically.”
Leatham worked at SubRosa Floral Design for five years and began doing the floral arrangements for the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. He was transferred to the Four Seasons Hotel in Paris in 1999 and began “trying to revolutionize the way people look at flowers,” Leatham said.
While working at the Four Seasons Hotel, he has published four books about floral design, appeared on numerous TV shows and has also done the flowers and design for several celebrity weddings, including Chelsea Clinton,Eva Longoria and Tina Turner.
“Martha Stewart gave me the nickname of the ‘rock and roll florist,’ ” Leatham said. “The reason why people think of me like that is because I just really think out of the box and I’ve really revolutionized the way people think of flowers and doing them in a different way that’s never been done before. I never had formal training and I just did what I wanted to do.”
Due to his groundbreaking work with floral design, Leatham will receive the Order of the Arts & Letters award and will be knighted on Nov. 3 at the Palace of Versailles in France. The French minister of culture and communication awards six people each year who have done outstanding work to further the arts in France. Leatham said he had been nominated for the award for the past three years.
“I will have a title as part of the knighthood for the rest of my life, Sir Knighthood Jeff Leatham,” he said. “It’s kind of cool. I’m really honored to get it.”
