“I've always had an intuitive connection to plants,” says supermodel Lily Kwong, who spent her childhood exploring the wild coast and moody forests of Northern California. It’s a connection that eventually lead her to pursue a degree in Urban Studies at Columbia University, and then a host of botanical-inspired projects with fashion brands like Maiyet—a natural progression, given all her fashion-world connections. Then, last year, things got more real: Kwong decided to go all-out and establish her own landscape design company, Studio Lily Kwong.