A Guide to the Best of Southern California : DESIGN : Let There Be Luci Fair

LUCI FAIR, A NEW wall lamp by celebrated French designer Philippe Starck, resembles a piece of paisley. And the horn atop a Viking helmet. And that early-’70s men’s fashion accessory, the pewter hot pepper dangling from a chain. Then, too, the lamp resembles a devil’s horn--hence the lamp’s name, Luci, a pun on Lucifer and the Italian term for light ( luce ). The myriad possible comparisons are not all that far-fetched, as they all exemplify Starck’s knack for reinterpreting familiar, comfortable Old World forms into contemporary, high-style shapes, making his pieces seem warm, cozy and familiar, as if they’d been around forever.

Functionally, the Luci Fair (which sells for $390) merits attention for the two types of light it casts: soft, warm rays that penetrate the hand-blown, opalescent glass diffuser, and the beam of direct, bright light that shines from the mouth of the lamp. Finally, Luci Fair takes three types of bulbs, which makes possible a wide range of light quality and energy efficiency: a standard incandescent, a compact fluorescent that screws into the bulb socket (for a cooler light) and a standard-voltage halogen bulb (for a pure, white light).