Plissée Floor Lamp

In the Plissée Floor Lamp, Sebastian Herkner plays with material perception — its pleated "textile" shade is actually hand-blown glass. On a slim metal base, it emits a soft, dimmable, diffused glow. The design echoes Herkner's signature blend of craftsmanship and innovation — an elegant conversation piece.

Sebastian Herkner, born in Bad Mergentheim in 1981 and based in Offenbach am Main, has built his reputation on exactly this kind of material sleight of hand: his breakthrough Bell Table for ClassiCon inverted convention by resting a metal top on a glass base. The Plissée continues that dialogue. What reads from across the room as softly pleated fabric — the plissé folds of a lampshade from a Paris atelier — reveals itself, up close, as a single piece of mouth-blown glass, its ridges formed in the mould while the glass is still glowing. ClassiCon, the Munich house known for editing both Eileen Gray's classics and contemporary designers, produces it with the same attention to craft.

Because the glass shade glows along its entire height, the Plissée works as much as ambient sculpture as task light. Place it in a living-room corner, beside a reading chair, or in a bedroom where its dimmable glow can take over from harsher overhead light in the evening. Its slender base needs little floor area, which suits the compact apartments common in Seoul, Tokyo, and Hong Kong — one Plissée can soften a whole room without claiming it. Browse more sculptural floor lamps, or read our guide to designer lighting for small apartments for more ideas on layering light in tighter spaces.

Light source: E27, 1 bulb, max 8 W. IP20, indoor.