Brilliant Baccarat

 

 

One of the prominent displays at this year’s Salone del Mobile in Milan, was that of Baccarat.  The French company is synonymous for fine crystal. Part of this being their high end lighting creations (usually very ornate crystal chandeliers). For this year’s exhibit, Baccarat asked 8 designers to create new pieces. Here is a looksie at some of these.

 

 

Philippe Starck’s interpretation of a Baccarat chandelier is a reference to Mary Poppins.  He imagines a dream like sequence in which, a magical umbrella would open and begin to float away. The Marie Coquine plays with the idea of magic and the thought of crystal being perceived as either solid or liquid.  The lamp is done in a chandelier and also a floor lamp.  The latter, as you can see, takes up a considerable more amount of  floor space (and yes, that is a leather boxing bag).

 

Jaime Hayón’s inspiration for his Candy Light was the idea of “mushroom in a forest of crystal”. The ‘candy’ comes from his vision of crystal as caramel.  He wanted to create a lamp that was beautiful to look at whether illuminated or not. I think we can agree that he achieved his goal, no?

 

 

 

Michele De Lucchi feels that, next to diamonds, crystals are the only other substance that “…make the brilliance of light brighter still by magnifying its splendour through its sparkling radiance, identical to a shaft of light.”  He views light as art. You cannot see it in these pictures, but the Sfera lamp actually casts a beautiful gleam against it’s backdrop.