In collaboration with House of Today and Edit Napoli, with the guidance and support of the Fondazione Made in Cloister, Stephanie Moussallem was introduced to and collaborated with various artisanal masters to produce Shades of Napoli.

In Shades of Napoli, elements of traditional Neapolitan artisan dialogue with noble materials to create four distinct lamps that illuminate the different landscapes, tonalities and impressions the Mediterranean city left on the designer. The collection also brings to light the parallels between Napoli and her home city of Beirut.

Moussallem adds: “The lamps are really the product of an entire experience and it is difficult to pinpoint particular inspirations. There are many trace references that led me to every piece, from an encounter with a master glass maker that worked with Frank Loyd Wright, to a funny story I heard about an island named in honour of unrequited love, to colonnade details and the savour of lemon. Not only does this collection bring together material and artisanal mastery unique to Naples, it also brings a kind of horizon and order to the frenzied dialogue and familiar chaos.”

Napoli and Beirut are astonishingly similar—the impassioned people, love of family, strong presence of faith in everyday life. Beyond the Mediterranean, the built-up urban disorder juxtaposed with a natural serenity, the charm and the grit, generate an especially strong pulsating energy that can only exist in such chaos and contradiction.

A variegated melange of coral, bone work and nativity vernacular unique to Naples are combined with multi-hued glass and intricate woodwork, also worked in the city. Vibrant and textured, each lamp—a first for Moussallem—is named after sensorial aspects of Napoli and its greater surroundings that strongly affected the designer: Sottomarino, Granita Di Limone, Campania and Posillipo.