Aesop Presents The Factory of Light Installation in Milan

There’s a certain clarity to Aesop’s visual identity. The Australian skincare brand’s approach to developing clean, luminous products for hands and hair often translates into the warm, minimalist, yet lustrous design of its stores. Aesop’s boutiques—designed by the likes of Snøhetta, Sabine Marcelis, and Jo Nagasaka—are always clad in sober yet enticing earth tones but also carefully deployed reflective metals.

Inspired by the aluminum tubes used to test and produce Aesop formulations, the just-launched Aposē luminaire also reflects this aesthetic. Now sold in a limited run of 500, the table lamp emanates a soft glow of yellowish-brown light from its frosted glass crown. Blown in the Murano style, its formal and refractive qualities are not unlike that of an Aesop handsoap bottle.

To unveil the product during this year’s Milan Design Week, long-time Aesop collaborator Rodney Eggleston—founder of Sydney architecture firm March Studio—positioned one-off variants of the design on an undulating field of meticulously anchored, repurposed 50 ml fragrance vials. Without any other illumination, the three fixtures—imagined in three height variations—rise above the landscape and diffuse their light through the glistening elements below.

Situated in the 15th century-built, Baroque-style Santa Maria del Carmine church, the “Factory of Light” installation makes for a striking juxtaposition. “The bottles act as mediators between the lamps and the space,” Eggleston said. In the courtyard outside, the exhibit is wrapped with a printed scaffolding structure; celebrating the European practice of covering these necessary exoskeletons in replicated images—trompe l’oeil tarpaulins—of the new or restored facades to come.

In a series of recessed alcoves, videos explicate the actual manufacturing process involved: Aposē’s brass plinth meticulously forged by hand in Germany; the glass halo hand-lathed near Venice. The correlation between laborious handwork and handcare quickly becomes clear. A scent diffused between both components of the installation hints at a degree of cohesion; the lamp fully assembled and brought from an industrial facility into one’s home.

To learn more about the Aposē Table Lamp by Aesop, visit aesop.com.

Photography by Ludovic Balay, courtesy of Aesop.

Adrian Madlener is a Brussels-born, New York-based writer specializing in collectible and sustainable design. With a particular focus on topics that exemplify the best in craft-led experimentation, he’s committed to supporting talents that push the envelope in various disciplines.