Lulu Lafortune
Los Angeles-based Lulu LaFortune had grown up thinking that she wanted to be a fashion designer, but when she started studying at The Savannah College of Art and Design in 2014, she had what could only be described as a light-bulb moment.
‘It wasn’t until I saw their furniture-design programme that I could imagine myself creating home goods and lighting – after my first class, everything clicked,’ she tells us. ‘I felt like I was still using the same design skills fabricating a new light as I was when sewing a dress.’
In 2020, after cutting her teeth working under interiors maven Kelly Wearstler, LaFortune decided to launch a homeware brand under her own name. Since then, she’s released three highly covetable collections, which include everything from plush quilted sofas to rainbow-bright drink tumblers and striking lighting pieces that reinterpret traditional design techniques in modern ways.
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LaFortune’s ‘Watts’ table lamp, for example, comprises a powder-coated aluminium base and a stained-glass sunburst shade that’s reminiscent of the Tiffany lamps that became popular towards the end of the 19th century. Her jewel-like ‘Bayes Boudoir’ lamp also has a stained-glass shade, which casts a watery chequered pattern across walls when switched on.
Working with a classic materials palette has always been a priority for LaFortune, who is alarmed by the amount of furnishings that end up in landfill every year because they’re no longer deemed as being in style. ‘I’ve realised that my family and so many other people I knew had very treasured heirlooms glittering in their homes; designing and fabricating an object made to last several generations is more worth my time than focusing on trends and cheap materials,’ she says.
Even the production process behind LaFortune’s lights is highly considered – each piece is made to order by a close-knit group of artisans in small-scale facilities located close to where she lives in LA. ‘I want a buyer to see a piece’s handiwork and to remember how special it is to have something made just for you,’ she adds. ‘The connection people can have with an object is amazing.’ lululafortune.com
Cúpla
Founded in 2022, the London-based architecture and interiors studio Cúpla has already designed an impressive number of homes and retail spaces – most notably a paradisiacal flagship store for fashion brand Rixo on Chelsea’s Kings Road. Yet, while working across these projects, there was one part of the design process that the studio’s co-founder, Gemma McCloskey, particularly enjoyed.
‘I was always obsessed with lights because they’re such strong decorative pieces,’ she says. ‘When they’re turned off, they almost look like a sculpture in the room, but when they’re switched on, they create a layer of warmth.’
McCloskey would typically hunt down one-of-a-kind lights by trawling through vendors across the globe, but when it came to finding something for her own new-build apartment, there was nothing on the market that looked quite right – so she decided to design her own, incorporating her love of colour and 1960s Italian lighting styles. ‘I wanted to do something that respected lighting that’s been done before, but still had a contemporary element to it,’ she adds.
The resulting designs now form part of ‘Caramella’, Cúpla’s inaugural lighting range. Comprised of glass pendants, sconces and surface-mounted lights, the collection is available in two finishes: ‘Confetti’, which is delightfully speckled, and ‘Humbug’, which has the vivid, swirly stripes of a boiled sweet (rather fitting, given that caramella is the Italian word for candy).
Each lamp is handmade by a team of artisans in Murano, with whom McCloskey and her team have steadily been building a relationship over the past few years. ‘We respect what they do, and try to understand every single process so that it can spur on more ideas,’ McCloskey explains. ‘We’ve even got a WhatsApp group, so that when pieces are getting blown they’ll send me pictures; it’s a very fluid process.’
Now that Cúpla safely has ‘Caramella’ under its belt, McCloskey says the studio will work on making neutral-toned lights for those who prefer their homes to look pared back, and may perhaps try making ceramic shades. ‘Hopefully, there’ll be something for everyone,’ she concludes. cuplastudio.co.uk
Anna Karlin
The lighting pieces by Anna Karlin take on a variety of forms: some look like bodily cells, while others resemble the profile of a face or are squiggly like a hurried pencil sketch. So, what connects all of her designs? ‘My work is not thematic at all,’ Karlin reveals. ‘It comes out of a conversation that I’m having with myself, and it’s ongoing – no piece is designed in a silo.’
The London-born, New York-based designer began developing what she calls her personal ‘design language’ when she was a visual-communications student at Central Saint Martins, and later the Glasgow School of Art. ‘The course teaches you how to tell a story, but I wondered what would happen if I stopped looking outwards and answering briefs for clients, and instead looked inwards,’ she explains. ‘I was also doing a lot of set design and concept interiors, and I just thought it would be interesting to make something permanent that I didn’t have to rip out at the end of the day.’
After familiarising herself with the design process, Karlin started to create her own lights, using a metal-rich material palette of bronze, brass and steel, as well as ceramic and glass. Many of Karlin’s works are more akin to sculptures one might see in a contemporary gallery – look at her totemic ‘Lantern Stack’, for instance, which is made up of a series of papery light shades. Then there’s the ‘Squidge’ table lamp, which features a bulb protruding from the centre of an amorphous glass body. ‘A lot of my pieces cross that line between art and design, and it’s up to the buyer how they want to place them,’ adds Karlin.
Fans of Karlin’s lighting will be glad to learn that she also designs fine jewellery, furniture and a wealth of quirky home accessories, from wriggly stemmed wine glasses to boob-shaped decanters. She can also be commissioned to design entire interiors – and she has no plans to slow down. ‘Honestly, I just want more of the same,’ she says. ‘I love my studio, and coming to work every day genuinely feels like going into Willy Wonka’s factory – it’s a very special place to be.’ annakarlin.com
