Fashion house Loewe unveiled lamps created by 24 international artists during Milan design week in an exhibition that featured materials ranging from birch twigs and horse hair to leather and Japanese washi paper.

The Loewe Lamps presentation took place within a single room at the historic Palazzo Citterio in Milan's Brera district.

Loewe, which was originally established as a leather-making craft collective in the 19th century, invited 24 artists from around the world to design a diverse offering of lamps for the exhibition.

"The artists push the properties of each material to create unexpected interactions with light," said the fashion house, headed by JW Anderson founder Jonathan Anderson.

South African ceramicist Andile Dyalvane used glass and clay to make bulbous lighting characterised by yellow- and amber-hued tentacles, which reference acacia trees.

"The two materials have so much in common, yet by exposing them to various temperature treatments and processes, they end up with quite different and interesting qualities that manifest in their final products," Dyalvane told Dezeen.

Contrasting with Dyalvane's amorphous piece, Scottish artist Jennifer Lee created a geometric lamp using salvaged washi paper Shoji screens from Lee's studio at the Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art.

"When I thought about a lamp, Japan immediately came to mind," said Lee, who has taken part in artist residences in Japan for the last decade and took cues from a Japanese doll's cabinet when creating her piece.

The delicate paper lighting bears subtle pencil marks drawn by Lee, who used walnut to construct the boxy design.

"I liked the way the paper had aged," explained the artist. "The existing traces told a story."

Japanese design also influenced British artist Anthea Hamilton, who contributed a kimono-shaped, stained-glass lamp scaled to human proportions.

"I was curious to know if light could take the form of a garment," Hamilton told Dezeen.

Similarly, Italian artist Enrico David designed his piece made of resin and sliced Turkish onyx to resemble a curved human profile.

"The lamp was originally going to be a finger with a glowing nail," David told Dezeen. "Then the finger curved on itself and it assumed a different nature."

Elsewhere in the exhibition, visitors could find more unusual materials such as the birch twigs used by Irish basketmaker Joe Hogan for his bird's nest-style pendant and the horse hair that clads a towering floor lamp by South Korean artist Dahye Jeong, who won the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in 2022.

Other materials featured in the exhibition range from the folded leather and brass used to create spiky pendant lights by Kenyan artist Magdalene Odundo, to delicate clay pots by Japanese artist Kazunori Hamana that are illuminated by a central bulb.

At last year's Milan design week, Loewe worked with global artisans to turn classic stick chairs into "sculptural objects". The brand's annual craft prize, which is now in its seventh year, was awarded to Japanese ceramicist Eriko Inazaki in 2023.

This year's winner is yet to be announced.

The photography is courtesy of Loewe.

Milan design week took place from 15 to 21 April 2024. See Dezeen Events Guide for an up-to-date list of architecture and design events taking place around the world.