Following Euroluce at the Milan fair, I feel like an archaeologist who has been given six weeks to excavate a site and ends up with so much material it will take six years to process it all! To provide the service we offer you, I have to see as many good stands, and meet as many people, as possible. An unintended sacrifice was not being able to see anything Fuorisalone—in Milan itself. This was a pity for me, because some of the venues can be fun, but almost everybody’s main displays (and their senior staff) were at the Fiera (the significant exceptions being Tekna and Marset).
Although the show was smaller than in 2019 (the last time Euroluce was held pre-COVID), occupying 18% less space, and with only 300,000 visitors, my long list of stands to visit had 65 entries, the same quantity as in 2019. This indicates that the average quality was higher—that the brands that were not there would not have been interesting anyway. (That’s not quite true; some key brands were not in Milan at all—virtually none from Scandinavia, for example.) It certainly felt stronger, tauter, and the visitors seemed more professional, more engaged, also. As a result, exhibitors were pleased with how it went. It was also more comfortable! Instead of the standard arrangement in rows, with smaller booths lost behind big ones, stands were arranged like islands. There was more space between them and also, mirabile dictu, areas for sitting down—yes! The one downside was difficulty navigating, whether to a specific stand, or identifying where the exits were.
So if COVID has resulted in the Salone Del Mobile being more manageable, whilst maintaining its quality, well, this what people used to say should happen (but how to make it happen?).
Overall bad things? Accommodation is as expensive as ever, and my favourite restaurant, though looking the same, isn’t. (Trend alert!!! Tartares now feature on every Milanese menu…?)
Overall good things? Tap and Go on the metro! No longer does one have to allow half a day to go to that office under Cadorna to fill in all the forms for a season ticket! Also, staying in the Navigli for the first time, I found a new favourite restaurant—actually, more a local trattoria.
So I have a lot to share with you! Mostly, it will feed into the depth of knowledge we draw on when we are working with you when you are specifying decorative lighting. But I will put some in emails. This first one contains designs that stood out for me, ending ith the most significant introduction in the whole show..
Could any design be more on trend?! Of course it’s got your frosted glass ball! It adds a horizontal disc!! And finishes with a small geometric shape!!!
Each is a functional light. The disc is an uplighter…
…the ball provides ambient light…
…and the tube at the bottom is a spotlight:
So there you have 2023’s trends in decorative lighting, all in one light (and a future classic)!
But what is not clear in pictures is the attention to detail from the Johanneses at Nyta. I was struck by the relationship between the reducing diameters of the ceiling plate and of the components below it. Then a Johannes pointed out that the diameters of the cables are also reduced for each section! Each component can be had individually, and the cable lengths can be adjusted, of course.
Lumina Perdue
Perdue is difficult to illustrate at the moment. There is no publicity for it yet, so we are dependent upon my photos of it. It is here because it is an important development. The number of good cordless lights is increasing steadily, but still most are mushroom-shaped (for table centres) or table-top blobs for more general lighting. There is a tiny handful of floor-standing cordless lights, and a couple of wall and ceiling versions. But, by approaching the cordless light from the other end, as it were, Lumina have in one design every possible typology. They have done this by adding a magnet.
In the picture above, the Perdue is the tube that is rounded at one end, and flat at the other end where the light comes out. It is shown as a wall light, attached to discs and to a bracket.
Here it is as a table light, in an arch-shaped bracket. You can point it wherever you like—up, down, side-to-side….
Lumina were showing Perdue as a pendant in two versions; attached to a little bracket….
…or to a disc:
I just love the light and shadow effects, both between the lit and unlit cones, but also the gradations of brightness on a single lit cone. There are two versions of Peaks: Peaks Up (pointy end down) and Peaks Down (pointy end up) What you see above are examples of the three initial pendants launched, with one, two or three cones, and their matching cone-shaped ceilng roses (ceiling cones?).
Vistosi Giogali
I wrote recently about the improvements that are being made at Vistosi, and that these included even better cristallo glass, and refining the shapes of some of the classic Giogali compositions. Euroluce was a chance to see the results up close.
The glass is certainly clearer and brighter than ever, helped by the relocation of the light sources.
But what I most wanted to check out was how they’d got the individual ganci to hang in such a way that the overrall shape is (in this case) a smooth ball. And the answer is…they have, and I still can’t see how:
LZF Voliere
What Sandro and Marivi have created with LZF—the unique material and the design style—is amazing. As amazing is how the collections move forward with judicious, eclectic choice of designers to create pieces for LZF using their Timberlite®.
I love that Bodo Sperlein took a traditional Murano glass 1930s design and reinterpreted it in wood (the result looking like feathers!). Just look at this!
Majestic, noble, grand…all adjectives which absolutely cannot be applied to…
LZF Candela
…by Candela Cort who, you won’t be surprised to hear, is a milliner.
Now the adjectives are fun, playful, colourful, light as air…!
DCW La Lampe B
DCW’s stand had the most interesting selection of luminaires in the whole show. Who would have though that they would achieve this in so short a time! We remember when DCW first appeared at Maison et Objet, with La Lampe Gras. Thierry Dreyfus’s La Lampe B is a very grown-up luminaire—very much a sculpture with a light added, that has echoes of Barbara Hepworth, or what a helmet for one of Elizabeth Frink’s heads might look like. It is asymmetrical: the form is dynamic, and interesting from every angle. It is H39cm W22.8cm and looks just as good off as it does when it is on, casting its warm, gentle light. Another future classic.
Roger Pradier Solar Lampiok 1
However, the most significant item at Euroluce was lurking in plain view on Roger Pradier’s stand. The Holy Grail in outdoor lighting is a luminaire that incorporates a photovoltaic cell that can generate enough energy for no mains charging or direct mains power to be needed. The trouble is that photovoltaic cells are not yet powerful enough for anything other than those naff way markers you can buy in garden centres. Nowatt’s Onyx Projector gets round this by having a large panel integrated into what therefore becomes a large luminaire. IP44.de, for their Solar collection, provide a computer-tablet-sized panel which can be hidden somewhere suitable near the luminaires(s), connected to them by a wire.
But Roger Pradier showed these solar versions of Lampiok with a cell incorporated into the top:
There is no marketing information available yet, so you saw it here first! It should become available late this year or early next year. The output of 220lm is about the same as a traditional 25W GLS—certainly enough for outdoor use. It can run for thirteen hours on a full change and has an integrated luminosity sensor so that it can turn itself on and off, depending upon how dark it is. They are H31.7cm and the base is 22.4cm square. Two finishes are shown above: aluminium powdered-coated in green, one of their huge choice of colours (with—of course!—Roger Pradier’s legendary twenty five year warranty on the finish); and lacquered brass:
So those are my Stars of the Show. In future posts, I will indicate what the biggest brands were doing, and what the overall trends are.
As always, if you are interested in specifying any of these lights, do get in touch, Be aware, though, that they may not yet be available (so do check with us first), and/or that there is, as yet, limited information available about some of them.
To see my three posts about the trends revealed at Euroluce 2023, click the titles below. These trends will affect decorative lighting for the next few years.
Euroluce 2023 trends #1: colour, new directions in linear lights
Euroluce 2023 trends #2: balls on sticks, spots on bars, lines & belts, dots of light
