Soft, Deliberate and a Little Disruptive: Flowers by Brett Matthew John in High Street, Armadale

High Street, Armadale has always been a strip that rewards a second look. Heritage shopfronts, tram lines, fashion houses and galleries sit shoulder to shoulder, and the suburb’s taste is rarely accidental. It is an apt home for Flowers by Brett Matthew John — better known as FBMJ — a concept floristry studio that treats blooms as material, not merely merchandise.

The studio works from 1260 High Street, Armadale VIC 3143, by appointment and invitation rather than as a walk-in bunch shop. That distinction matters. FBMJ is not trying to be every florist to every occasion. For the past decade it has built a practice that sits between floristry, art and cultural observation — work that can finish a wedding, hold a campaign, fill a private home, or refuse the expected bouquet altogether.

A practice, not a shop window

On the official site, Brett Matthew John (he/him) describes the work plainly. Colour, form and composition lead. References come from music, fashion and film, “with a heavy watering of pop culture and the occasional hyper-fixation.” Flowers are often the medium, “but rarely the entire conversation.”

That line is the key to FBMJ. A classic single stem can still appear. So can a lushly wrought bouquet. So can spray paint, glitter, reflexed roses, custom-coloured hydrangea, mocha phalaenopsis, candy hydrangea, anthuriums in unexpected tones, and installations that behave more like set design than table decoration. The studio’s own language is fashion-adjacent: mood boards, colour theory charts, editorial still life, and a consultation space stacked with Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar.

Brett originally wanted to be a fashion designer. The pivot into conceptual floristry did not leave fashion behind. In a 2024 interview with Thursd, he noted how quickly runway and editorial ideas move into flowers, and how social media accelerates that transfer. FBMJ has worked with Australian designers and luxury houses on briefs that treat floristry as part of a wider visual campaign rather than a last-minute add-on.

Ten years of colour, then a bow instead of a bloom

FBMJ has been operating since 2016. By the studio’s own account it has produced work across weddings, editorial projects, brand campaigns, installations and still life. Publicly named collaborators and clients have included CHANEL, Prada, Gucci, OMEGA, Emirates, ANTON, L’Oréal Australia, Paramount Networks Australia and Sony Music Australia. In 2023 the National Gallery of Victoria recognised FBMJ as a leader in Australian floristry.

The look most people associate with the studio is hyper-feminine without being timid: painted and pastel blooms, pearl and metallic accents, monochromatic “marshmallow” masses, reflexed roses en masse, trailing orchids, and custom anthuriums. Brett has said he lives “through rose-coloured glasses” and that “everything is better when it’s pink,” with a particular weakness for marshmallow pastel. Favourite materials have included candy hydrangeas, dyed cymbidium orchids in pink and lilac, burnt-orange and red anthuriums, and mocha phalaenopsis.

The process is more structured than the finished softness suggests. A typical commission starts with a relaxed consultation — often over coffee — then a conceptual mood board and a colour chart. Those references go to market. The team has spoken of early starts at Melbourne’s wholesale houses, where trusted growers and suppliers hold back unusual stems: flowering magnolia, lotus, candy hydrangea, one-off colourways. Australia’s dry landscape, Brett has argued, forces designers to think harder; the market’s lush imports and local specialists become the contrast.

In 2025 the studio pushed the idea further with bowquet by b m j™. Collection 001: Ten marked ten years with flowers by replacing petals with handmade bows — layered, knotted, composed freely, released in limited numbers rather than as replicas. Pieces carried names such as porcelain heart, bow wow wow, whisper honey and falling (love again). The first campaign images deliberately avoided the bride. Brett wanted a male-presenting body holding something soft and slightly confusing: “is it masculine? feminine? did it make you look?” The bouquet, in that telling, is not a symbol of tradition but of expression — part fashion, part art, part whatever the holder needs it to be.

That same restlessness shows up in merch. FBMJ sells unbranded cotton shirts with lines that sound like studio policy: “flowers die, that’s the point”; “florist. (service worker)”; and the quote Brett has cited with approval — “don’t put me on your moodboard, hire me.”

Armadale, Stonnington, and why the address fits

Armadale is one of Melbourne’s most composed inner suburbs: High Street and Glenferrie Road, heritage houses, boutiques, galleries, coffee and a clientele that already understands appointment culture. FBMJ sits at the eastern end of that High Street world. Earlier directory listings placed the business at 586 Malvern Road, Prahran; the current public address, confirmed on Instagram and local listings, is 1260 High Street, Armadale.

The studio is not a high-volume same-day delivery warehouse. It is closer to an atelier. Weekday hours published on local listings run Tuesday to Friday, 8.00am–3.00pm, but the working rule on the Instagram bio is the one that matters: by appointment / invitation. Expressions of interest are invited for project work and for recurring home florals — the kind of piece styled into a private interior on a regular cadence rather than a one-off gift. The studio has also stepped into the neighbourhood in lighter ways, including a Mother’s Day grab-and-go partnership with Nigel Armadale, and an elopement collaboration at Poodle Bar & Bistro that bundled a bespoke FBMJ bouquet and statement backdrop with venue, photography and cake.

For Stonnington locals, that mix is useful. You can still send flowers. You can also commission an installation, a wedding language, a campaign, a home programme, or an object that only pretends to be a bouquet. Melbourne, Brett has said, is not short of florists so much as it is rich in demand — “all in their own lane.” FBMJ’s lane is the one that starts with a brief and a mood board, not a price list of twelve red roses.

What to commission

Weddings and elopements. Bespoke bouquets, backdrops and full floral worlds. The studio is used to intimate formats as well as statement work.

Home florals. Recurring or one-off pieces designed for a specific interior rather than a generic “seasonal mixed.”

Brand, editorial and events. Visual merchandising, launches, campaign floristry and installations for fashion and media clients.

Objects and collections. Bowquet pieces and limited studio drops when they are released.

Gifting. When FBMJ opens limited collection or seasonal windows, the work is still one-of-a-kind rather than a repeated SKU.

Pricing is on enquiry, which is consistent with bespoke work. The practical route is a short written brief: date, place, palette, references, and whether the job is a wedding, a home, a campaign or something that does not yet have a category.

Visit and contact

Flowers by Brett Matthew John | FBMJ
1260 High Street
Armadale VIC 3143
Australia

Studio: by appointment / invitation
Published weekday hours (listings): Tuesday–Friday, 8.00am–3.00pm

Email: brett@flowersbybrettmatthewjohn.com
Instagram: @flowersbybrettmatthewjohn
Website: flowersbybrettmatthewjohn.com
Order / shop: flowersbybrettmatthewjohn.com/orderfbmj
Directory phone (earlier Prahran listing): (03) 9510 4868

The contact page is written in the first person. Brett asks for a few details about the next project and welcomes briefs that “orbit the FBMJ aesthetic.” That is the right way in. Do not treat the studio as a last-minute High Street dash. Treat it as a collaborator with a point of view — soft, deliberate, and, when it needs to be, a little disruptive.

FBMJ acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land on which it lives, works and creates across Naarm (Melbourne) and greater Australia, and pays respects to Elders past and present.