Our connection to the floral form has roots that run deep and wide from our bespoke lighting collection and petal-shaped plates to the intricate, thorn-dressed stems of the Bouquet series. It's true that many subjects inform our studio's perspective, but flowers have a special hold on our heart given their ability to endure the elements with such gumption, the same way that glass does under fire.

For inspiration this summer, we keep turning to Irving Penn's book, 'Flowers,' an iconic collection of botanical portraits that Penn photographed between 1967 and 1973. Each evocative in its own right, every image offers a poetic composition of nature in its most vulnerable state, examined in a micro, Karl Blossfeldt-fashion.

Penn first started photographing flowers in the late 1960s after being commissioned by Vogue to add floral features to their Christmas editions (a rabbit hole worthy of a fall). This first installment soon turned into seven, with Penn profiling a wide variety of flowers across a handful of issues for the magazine. By 1980, these portraits came together to become the book of 'Flowers,' now a rare find, it's a treasured resource for anyone interested in the wonder of natural matter. Later in his life, Penn continued to explore the floral form as it related to his own aging; finding beauty in older blooms.

Some other floral favorites lately look like the glass blooms from Passaggi leftover from Milan, Casablanca Lilies, and every frame from the 1959 Georgian documentary, 'Sapovnela' or 'Song about a flower.'