ABOVE THE CROWD

Once crowned San Francisco's best-dressed man, Indonesia-born JONATHAN RACHMAN was a celebrity florist before successfully transitioning into interior design. Now also a published author, the multihyphenate clues us in on his singular style of fusing East and West.

- YANNI TAN

Ten years of Corporate America was enough to make Jonathan Rachman give up on the grind and start a little flower shop in San Francisco in the early noughties. Marc Jacobs discovered him, and before long, he was doing arrangements for the likes of Madonna, Oprah Winfrey and Sarah Jessica Parker. His work for celebrities saw him spreading his wings beyond the Bay Area right across the Atlantic.

Hot on the heels of MTV, Four Seasons and even the United Nations to engage him for their events were the ladies who lunch - and it was one of them who helped him launch, serendipitously, his interior design career. "It landed on my lap," says Rachman, who did not have formal training in this area.

Today, the creative has made a name for his unique yet timeless approach blending the best of East and West. His celebrated sumptuous exoticism is a nod to his Sumatran heritage, while his flair for incorporating antiques and historical treasures in a contemporary setting stems from years of scouring vintage markets. However, Rachman's aesthetic is but the sum of his fascinating life journey as a world citizen.

He was sent to Switzerland at a very young age, graduated in hospitality management there, moved on to graduate studies in fashion under the tutelage of noted British fashion illustrator Gladys Perint Palmer, spent some years in France, and joined the rat race in the US before changing his life trajectory.