Incollect Magazine - Issue 15

Incollect Magazine 21 F or twenty-five years, Sally Thomas Cooper and Jason Kai Cooper have been reshaping the language of contemporary lighting. Long admired by architects and hospitality designers for bespoke commissions, the husband-and-wife team have refined an approach grounded in craftsmanship, authentic materials, and a belief that lighting should be as sculptural as it is functional. To mark their anniversary, Thomas Cooper Studio unveiled two new collections, VA VA VOOM and Ziggy, that distill many of the ideas the couple has developed over decades of designing together. Dramatically different in appearance, both collections, now available for purchase on Incollect.com, reflect a shared fascination with modernism, architecture, and the expressive possibilities of light.“We’ve been creating lighting together in Los Angeles for twenty-five years,” says Sally Thomas Cooper. “The Thomas Cooper Studio line is the culmination of everything we’ve learned and everything we love. These collections are very close to our hearts because they’re made exactly the way we believe things should be made — with true materials, true processes, and extraordinary artisans. It is the apex of what we do.” The couple, well known for home and hospitality lighting through their successful ventures Luxe and Lusive, founded Thomas Cooper Studio in 2023 to better explore the material and sculptural essence of lighting. Every fixture in the new brand line is handmade to order in their East Los Angeles workshop in collaboration with local skilled glassmakers, bronze casters, stone fabricators and metal artisans. “The emphasis remains firmly on revealing the natural beauty of the material palette,” Sally Thomas Cooper says. The designs incorporate heat-formed, mouth-blown, flash-cracked glass; carved marble, alabaster, and natural stone; cast and hand-patinated bronze; and hand- polished, leaded crystal. The VA VA VOOM collection is perhaps the clearest expression of that material philosophy. Its elongated brass forms and luminous quartz cabochons evoke the optimism of postwar modernism, drawing inspiration from the clean architectural lines of Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe while embracing the glamour of the Jet Age. For Cooper, the collection is deeply personal. “My obsession has always been with 20th Century Modernism,” she says. “We live in this incredible modernist treehouse in the Hollywood Hills that was designed by Robert Boyle, the legendary Hollywood production designer. It’s filled with modernist objects we’ve collected from around the world. Living there influences everything we make.” That connection between architecture and object is immediately evident. The collection’s polished brass pendants stretch into long, elegant profiles that recall by Benjamin Genocchio • photos courtesy Thomas Cooper Studio streamlined aircraft and modernist buildings. Natural quartz introduces an organic softness that prevents the designs from feeling cold or austere — even if references to 1970s Brutalist design pop up here and there. The accompanying torchiere rises like a slender rocket, emitting gentle ambient light while serving as a sculptural focal point. If VA VA VOOM looks toward twentieth-century modernism, Ziggy reaches much further back in history. The collection began after the Coopers encountered images of ancient Mesopotamian ziggurats during museum visits and travels. The monumental stepped temples — structures that symbolized the connection The Ziggy collection was inspired by the rhythmic form of ancient ziggurats, with dynamic angles that exude movement and energy. Offered in horizontal and vertical formats, two different lengths, and a 4-pendant version. The Ziggy Pendant – Horizontal is available in 36" and 43" as well as custom lengths. between earth and heaven — became the unlikely starting point for an entirely contemporary lighting collection. “There’s something incredibly powerful about that silhouette,” Cooper says. “It begins with these ancient temples, then reappears centuries later in Art Deco architecture and continues into modern design. It’s one of those forms that never really disappears across thousands of years of art, architecture and design.” Jason Cooper translated that enduring geometry into a family of bronze wall fixtures defined by sharply angled profiles that rise in stepped tiers. Suspended within those bronze frameworks are textured, seeded glass lenses produced by specialist artisans in Northern California, creating a dialogue between solid metal and softly diffused light. Rather than reproducing historical architecture, Ziggy strips the ziggurat down to its essential geometry. The resulting compositions feel simultaneously ancient and futuristic — minimalist sculptures whose stepped forms acquire new depth as light passes through their textured glass. After twenty-five years, Thomas Cooper Studio is not looking backward. Instead, the anniversary is a reminder that craftsmanship, supported by ongoing collaboration, can continue to produce work that is fresh, relevant, and timeless.