STEFANIA DI PETRILLO
Revisiting the chandelier
Specialist in chandeliers since the middle of the 19th century, Saint-Louis wanted to evolve this classic. Saint-Louis chose to collaborate with Stefania Di Petrillo for her mischievous and curious mind. She took her inspiration from the traditional chandelier arm, and transformed it into a source of light in the Torsade collection.
An old-time collaboration
With her unique sensibility and quirky way of seeing things, Stefania Di Petrillo, native from Parma, Italy, has made Paris her home. She has always used her creations to tell stories, creations that are marked with mischief, lightness and modesty.
The designer contributed to getting Hermès’ creative laboratory, Petit h, off the ground, then conceived a series of objects for the Comédie-Française. An old partner in crime of Saint-Louis, in 2011 Stefania Di Petrillo flipped the glasses from the Apollo collection, turning them into ravishing crystal lampshades, votive lamps, table lamps and contemporary chandeliers. With Torsade, she is continuing her work, reinterpreting everyday objects and giving them starring roles.
Turning an arm into a source of light
“I like to showcase ordinary things. Years back, I hung a damaged chandelier arm to a wall and ran a rope through it. This garland idea stayed with me and when I started to conceive Torsade, I wanted to replace the rope with a ribbon of light, to transform the arm, which was originally there to support the lamp, into a lamp itself, changing its function. ”, Stefania Di Petrillo.
True to her philosophy, the designer conceived a collection of lamps, made up of two shapes, one in a loop and the other in a U shape. These two figures with their elegant curves are available in models as pendant lights, as table lamps and as wall lights, and chandeliers (featuring a dimmer), for a total of 10 models.
From a single lamp to a combination of 18 lights, the Torsade collection lies somewhere between a series and a unique piece, providing a versatility that allows it to adorn and illuminate a wide variety of spaces. Torsade redefines the vocabulary of the crystal chandelier, offering an architectural composition that is both minimal, like a luminous movement frozen in time, and monumental, evoking a sculptural lacework to create theatrical lighting.
With Torsade, Stefania Di Petrillo is deconstructing this classic of the manufacture’s repertoire, all while paying tribute to the twisting technique practiced by master glassmakers using hot glass making techniques at the manufacture’s hot workshop.
Although decorative, the chandelier crystal arm has been, since its origins, a form of support. Originally used for candles, thanks to its hollow structure, it was then adapted to allow electric cables run through it.
To make one, glassmakers work with the molten crystal in pairs, they then stretch it by printing a twist shape into the still-hot cylinder, each turning from their side in a precise manner when the material is at just the right temperature to be suitable to be shaped into this rope effect. After this, they roll the arm around a steel capstan that serves as a template in order to give it its shape and to cool it all while maintaining its volume. A choreography that illustrates the teamwork that is characteristic of the hot workshop and the art of “collecting,” that is, the taking of molten crystal from the furnace. The twisted arms showcase this expertise, while the glassmaking techniques have just been listed as part of humanity’s intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO.
To develop Torsade, Stefania Di Petrillo exploited crystal's ability to diffract light, amplified by the thousands of facets of the crystal arms, which have invisible LEDs inside of them. “Building relationships with experts in new sources of light and materials is one of the great riches of our job,” says Jean-François Lavaud, head of the Lighting department. Saint-Louis has always been able to update and enrich its expertise by adopting the technical innovations of the times. This was the case again with Torsade, which combines great skill with the manufacture’s expertise in LEDs, making this model the perfect link between the classic chandeliers of the Royal collection and the modular and contemporary lights of the Folia collection.
TorsadeCollection
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