“In typical Jaime Hayon style, these Paper Lanterns challenge convention,” notes &tradition Brand Manager Martin Kornbek Hansen. “Seen in an ultra light pendant lamp of rice paper, echoing ancient lanterns from Asia – reinvented in a modern aesthetic.”

Dating back centuries, paper lanterns have featured in Asia amongst the privileged and the poor, where different colours, shapes and sizes connote different meanings. Here Hayon has dispensed with cultural formalities to create a series of lanterns all in white. Hand crafted with rice paper merging various sizes and shapes together.

“Lamps play such an important role in people’s lives,” explains Hayon. “For some cultures, they chase away the darkness by bringing hope. I’ve tried to keep this emotional angle about light – in a lamp that also appears light. By making the bottom part of the lamp open, the idea is to bring even more illumination to people everywhere in the world.”

The Paper Lantern series is comprised of three different versions in ivory white rice paper with black stained oak accents in sizes from 46 cm in diameter to 70 cm. Each weighing only 1 kilo, they hang delicately in any indoor setting. Living proof that when East and West meet, the past becomes the present in a poetic expression of both.