Designing Window Boxes with Tom Ford’s Jared Reichert

Manhattan’s West Village is an enclave of beautiful exteriors– there are walk-up townhouses with dignified stoops and mixed-use apartments lined up on tidy, tree-lined streets. A preponderance of small gardens and al fresco dining make this neighborhood the perfect area to people watch and observe spring trees in bloom– and it’s also a great place to showcase plants using structured, refined window box planters.

Earlier this spring, Garden Collage met with Jared Reichert, Director of Visuals for Tom Ford North America, at his streetfront apartment in the neighborhood. Jared has an eye for interiors, and given the opportunity to collaborate on window box arrangements that would transmit his style into an exterior feature, he had some amazing ideas about how to incorporate the red clover, sprawling wireline, and sedge grass we chose for the project. We spent the afternoon drinking rosé and talking about interior design, exterior architecture, and how garden features like window boxes can be used to highlight both while adding softness and personality to any home exterior.

“I think it’s very important to not only have plants that express one’s own personal aesthetic, but also a container that blends with the architecture and design elements of my building,” he told us after we styled the window boxes in his garden courtyard. “Given the industrial-era grates protecting my windows and my minimalist design approach, it was important for me to choose a structured container that creates a textured canvas for the plants. Concrete is perfect! The dark plum leaves and chartreuse grass pop on the grey backdrop while still feeling masculine and contemporary.”