Flos Books
Imaginative lighting is a longtime hallmark of modern Italian design. Following in the footsteps of innovative companies such as Artemide and Arteluce, the company FLOS brought a fresh aesthetic philosophy to the Italian lighting field in the 1960s, one that would produce several of the iconic floor lamp, table lamp and pendant light designs of the era.
FLOS — Latin for “flower” — was founded in the northern town of Merano in 1962 by Cesare Cassina (of the famed Cassina furniture-making family) and Dino Gavina, a highly cultured businessman who believed that artistic ideas espoused in postwar Italy could inform commercial design. The two enlisted brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni as their first designers.
Even before FLOS was formally incorporated, the Castiglionis gave the firm one of its enduring successes with the Taraxacum pendant and associated designs made by spraying an elastic polymer on a metal armature. (George Nelson had pioneered the technique in the United States in the early 1950s.) For other designs, the brothers found inspiration in everyday objects. Suggestive of streetlights, their Arco floor lamp, with its chrome boom and ball-shaped shade sweeping out from a marble block base, has become a staple of modernist decors. Designing for FLOS since 1966, Tobia Scarpa has also been inspired by the commonplace. His folded-metal Foglio sconces resemble a shirt cuff; his carved marble Biagio table lamp looks like a jai alai basket.
In 1973, FLOS purchased Arteluce, the company founded in 1939 by Gino Sarfatti, and it continues to produce his designs. In recent decades, FLOS has contracted work from several noted designers, including Marcel Wanders and Jasper Morrison. As instantly recognizable as they are, many FLOS designs remain accessible. While FLOS lighting is the essence of modernity, its sleek, subtle designs can be used to strike a sculptural note in even traditional spaces.
Browse a broad range of FLOS lighting fixtures at 1stDibs.
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Flos Books
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1980s Spanish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Flos Books
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1970s Spanish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Flos Books
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21st Century and Contemporary American Qing Flos Books
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1960s Spanish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Flos Books
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1990s Flos Books
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1970s Spanish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Flos Books
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1970s Spanish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Flos Books
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Late 20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Flos Books
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1990s Flos Books
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1950s Central American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Flos Books
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21st Century and Contemporary English Flos Books
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21st Century and Contemporary French Art Deco Flos Books
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- Where are Flos lights made?1 Answer1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Flos has manufacturing partners in multiple countries. For example, they acquired American developer Lukas Lighting in the 2010s to serve Flos’s North American audience. Shop a collection of vintage and contemporary Flos lighting from some of the world’s top sellers on 1stDibs.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Yes, the arc of the Flos Arco floor lamp is designed to allow you to adjust it with ease. Designed in 1962, this iconic style features telescoping detail built into the gracefully arched arm, making it simple to increase or decrease the height. Browse a collection of Flos Arco floor lamps on 1stDibs.