There was a fishing rod, a mannequin that looked like a fisherman and a light bulb at the end. From that elementary image, Twiggy was born: one of the most loved, imitated and recognisable lamps in contemporary design, created by Marc Sadler with Foscarini.
Twenty years after its inception, we celebrate a story that is much more than an anniversary, featuring an installation by Ferruccio Laviani at Foscarini Spazio Monforte for Milano Design Week

When Twiggy was first created, some predicted a short life for such a strange lamp – slender, tall, gangly, swaying like a flower in the wind. Twenty years later, it is not only still here but remains one of the most appreciated and imitated arc floor lamps.

We explore what it took to achieve its unique design: a lamp that took an established typology – the arc – and overturned it, creating an object with a completely different personality: light, playful and possessing an elegance born of subtraction and the resolution of complexity into immediately understandable shapes. Behind it lies a story of many years of trial and error. It is the narrative of how to create something that has never been done before. A design story, exactly the way Foscarini likes it.

Inspired by the image of a fishing rod – a light suspended at the end of a flexible line – Twiggy was born from research into materials. The use of reinforced fibreglass and carbon – borrowed from the world of sports equipment – results in a slender, hard-wearing and extremely flexible structure, capable of bringing light exactly where it is needed.

Twiggy’s sinuosity – the name evokes the slim figure of the iconic British model – stems from a calibrated relationship between rigidity and flexibility: carbon ensures strength, while reinforced fibreglass allows the structure to bend and sway while maintaining stability. The result is a clean, continuous mark: slender yet decisive. A single line joins the base and diffuser in a game of mass and tension, accompanied by a natural oscillation. The rod draws a wide, discreet curve, while the flat, sleek base integrates easily under furniture and rugs.

Contemporary in its light as well, Twiggy lights both downwards and upwards, blending function with atmosphere. The wide diffuser offers full light, screened by a band to ensure visual comfort, while a system of counterweights adjusts its height: a simple and intuitive mechanism made possible by the structure’s flexibility.

Lastly, colour completes the project’s identity. Moving away from traditional monochrome, Twiggy expresses itself through tones that become either an accent or a discreet presence in the space. The diffuser, in glass fabric pigmented with resin, introduces a moiré texture born of a chance discovery, an example of the Foscarini approach, where technical research and aesthetic sensitivity are intertwined.