BIBE Glass Lights Collection

DESIGN: Katarzyna Będzińska-Kowalczyk (Embassy Interiors)

THE MANUFACTURER’S NAME: Embassy Interiors

must have 2021

BIBE Glass Lights Collection – classically elegant and unpretentious, and yet created to remain in the centre of attention.

The form of the lampshades of BIBE Collection was inspired by the life and work of Eileen Gray – architect and furniture designer – underappreciated in her lifetime but today heralded as the first lady of modernist design and the icon of Bauhaus. Contrary to her contemporaries such as Le Corbusier, Gray thought that “a house is not a machine to live in. It is the shell of man, his extension, his release, his spiritual emanation”. In the designs created by Eileen Gray one can clearly see views polemic to the decidedly masculine, hard line of the male stars of art and architecture of her times. It is her furniture in particular which introduced feminine tones into the severe modernist style. One of her designs, the so-called BIBENDUM CHAIR became our inspiration in creating a lampshade for our new line of lamps, hence the symbolic name BIBE.

Glass Lights Collection BIBE was designed in the Embassy studio and is hand-made with great attention to detail. The geometric details are made of solid brass. The lampshades are produced using a traditional method of blowing glass into a mould, using three layers of molten glass. The glass formed in this way has charm which is not available in mass-produced objects. The small imperfections visible in the layers of glass give a special and unusual character to the lamplight.

The Glass Lights Collection BIBE was created thinking of those who value individual character, quality of craftsmanship, and above all things with their own history. BIBE will tell you the story of an unusual woman and the grande dame of modernism – Eileen Gray.