The Hottest New Lamps Were Designed in the ’60s and ’70s
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your account’s‘Saved for Later’section.
The 1960s and ’70s were a golden age for lamp design. New plastics and new techniques for molding it combined with economic chaos, forcing young designers to get scrappy. Add in boredom with the austere simplicity of modernist design and you get an explosion of weird, beautiful experimental forms: lampsshaped like dumplings, lamps withplastic helmets, lamps of everysize,shape, andproportion. And then, over time, tastes changed, the plastic faded in the sun and chipped, and the only way to experience the ebullience of many postmodern lamp designs was by getting lucky on a secondhand site, finding a model in okay condition.
New! You can now save this product for later.
The lamps of the 1960s and ’70s are back. Italian production company Kartell just reissued the KD28, a squat bulb nested in a plastic collar, designed by Joe Colombo in 1967. (A delightful feature of the lamp:You can stack two on top of each other.) Vintage KD28s can sell forover $1,000on resale sites; now you can buy it new for $295, redesigned with an LED-light source.
Some lamps are being reissued for their semicentennials — the Artemide Sintesi, a task light designed by Ernesto Gismondi, was rereleased in four primary colors when it turned 50 in 2025 — and some have seen renewed interest as vintage collectors seek out rare models online. Danish designer Verner Panton was responsible for some of the era’s zaniest interiors (seehis redesign ofDer Spiegel’s offices in Hamburg), and two of his lamps — the Flowerpot and Panthella — have recently reentered production. There is an entire Amazon-dupe ecosystem devoted to designs originally produced by Guzzini, my favorite production company of that era; they’re often tagged as “Bauhaus,” which is wrong but in the right neighborhood.
I love vintage lamps, but they are finicky — the wiring often needs repair after so many years out of use, so I’m excited to see these designs in a format that doesn’t involve crossing your fingers the first time you plug the cord into the socket. The new reissues also useLEDs, which are more energy efficient than halogens and incandescents. It has also added some excitement to my secondhand lamp hunting. The Joe Colombo lamp has a sibling,the KD29, with a higher collar that harbors aset of cubbiesfor your bedside-table knickknacks — maybe that can come back next.
New! You can now save this product for later.
New! You can now save this product for later.
Verner Panton’s Panthella has been reissued in several styles, including a portable version.
New! You can now save this product for later.
The Sintesi task lamp was reissued for its 50th birthday.
New! You can now save this product for later.
One of many Amazon dupes of lamps made by the production company Guzzini in the ’60s and ’70s.
More From The Strategist
- Hark, the Advent Calendars Arrived (Very) Early This Year
- 63 Things You Should Never Buy Full Price
- The Strategist Fall 100
- The Best Things Strategist Editors Have Bought This Year (So Far)
The Strategistis designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read abouthere. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
