Los Angeles-based designer Kelly Wearstler has shaped a formidable career, balancing comfort with drama and craft with texture, to bring appropriate levels of poetic charm to cinematic interiors. Her new lighting collection ‘Lotura’ marks an intriguing development away from architectural or even decorative lighting, towards light sources of a more sculptural nature. And when Wearstler shifts gears, the industry sits up and takes note.
The designer cites brutalism as her muse here, and it’s not hard to see why. Materiality is front and centre, with cast metals celebrated in glorious heft, constructed in intersecting forms that play with their weight, while curved edges bring a subtle softening effect. Three different finishes – blackened bronze, aged brass or powdery white – bring echoes of deco glamour. The collection comprises floor lamps, table lamps, pendants and sconces, with uplighting and downlighting options available to suit your needs and desires.
Kelly Wearstler was a guest editor of Wallpaper* in 2022, and we couldn’t let the opportunity pass to catch up with her to hear more about how ‘Lotura’ came to be.
Kelly Wearstler’s ‘Lotura’ lighting
Wallpaper*: Congratulations on such a striking collection. The brutalist mood is compelling – is this a response to the brutal times in which we are living?
Kelly Wearstler: I find there is something eternally modern and universal about brutalism – its architecture and influence now spans decades and can be found across the globe. Furniture that is composed of a single element in a brutalist form brings its texture, shape and colour to the forefront – embracing the organic and conveying the hand of the maker. Our challenge with ‘Lotura’ was bringing this to life through lighting.
W*: Tell us about the name ‘Lotura’.
KW: ‘Lotura’ is derived from the Latin root ‘lavo’ and often defined as ‘a washing’. The ‘Lotura’ collection achieves just that – a washing of light from within the traversing metal planes of the fixtures.
W*: How would you describe the character of the collection?
KW: The entire collection is composed of textural, artisanal cast metal. The uniformity is a characteristic of brutalist design – demonstrating an appreciation of materiality but also representing an instance where structural elements are favoured over decorative design.
W*: It feels as if there's a move away from background, architectural lighting towards more sculptural lighting objects – do you agree?
KW: Yes, lighting in particular holds incredible potential to blur the lines between art objects and practical design. There is a growing appreciation for strong sculptural forms – bringing forth the realisation that functional pieces can be works of art, too.
W*: Please complete the sentence: ‘Design for me means...’
KW: Celebrating the unexpected.
-
Compact creativity: the best pocketable tech tools show that small is still beautifulThese dimunitive devices offer up functionality and portability in every field, from capturing every kind of sound, vision and imagery as well as ways to edit, write and play it all back
-
Portrait of a modernist maverick: last chance to see the Jean Cocteau retrospective in Venice‘Cocteau: The Juggler’s Revenge’, celebrating the French artist's defiance of artistic labels, is in its final week at Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
-
Brazilian island hotel Auka Boipeba offers a unique approach to the alfresco experienceDesigned by architecture studio FGMF, Auka Boipeba describes itself as an inn, though it’s certainly unlike any inn we’ve ever been to
-
Kelly Wearstler’s Gallery is growing through new collaborationsKelly Wearstler presents an expansion of her digital Gallery, with pieces by artists, designers and makers
-
Kelly Wearstler on design and the metaverse, cool co-creators, and her Wallpaper* takeoverKelly Wearstler, doyenne of American design and Wallpaper* guest editor, invites us into her Beverly Hills home for an exclusive photo shoot, and talks technology, craft and creative kindred spirits, as we present a portfolio of her interiors projects
-
Kelly Wearstler’s new furniture and lighting balances ‘the familiar and the unexpected’Kelly Wearstler launches a new collection of furniture. Called ‘Transcendence’, the pieces are made in collaboration with local craftsmen with a focus on materiality
-
Kelly Wearstler makes over a midcentury Malibu beach houseThe American designer fills her Malibu beachside home with pieces from an extensive and eclectic design collection
-
LA looks: Hollywood Proper Residences gets the Kelly Wearstler treatment -
Top 20 interior designers who know how to create sublime spacesFrom delicate and muted minimalism to eye-popping, era-hopping fancies, here are the designers who know how to mix, match, edit, illuminate, decorate and otherwise create sublime spaces
