Flos

The Italian maestro of light­ing took its name from the Latin word for flower, and indeed bright ideas have blos­somed since its found­ing in 1962. Flos first attracted atten­tion for its ​“Cocoon” light­ing, for which legendary duo Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni enveloped a steel frame in sprayed plastic and created an icon of 1960s mod fashion. MoMA acknowl­edged the manufacturer’s achieve­ments in 1972, includ­ing its light­ing in the survey ​“Italy: The New Domestic Landscape.”

Flos didn’t rest on its laurels, however, but pushed forward with collab­o­ra­tions with another duo, Afra and Tobia Scarpa, which included the slim floor lamp Papil­lona, one of the world’s first halogen lamps. This blend of cutting-edge tech and elegant design would carry on through the follow­ing decades, result­ing in block­busters like Phillipe Starck’s Sissi table lamp, which sold an aston­ish­ing 100,000 units in 1985. Flos helped to pioneer the use of illu­mi­na­tion as archi­tec­ture with a new divi­sion, Flos Archi­tec­tural Light­ing, and as art itself, with commis­sions for Jenny Holzer that brought her slogans to light. And its commit­ment to inno­va­tions for the home contin­ues into the 21st Century: Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec’s Aim pendant coils like a vine, with a bright bud of a diffuser, proving that after almost sixty years, Flos is still growing strong. Context Gallery has been a trusted partner with Flos for over a decade.