Design of the times

But which era was the Hector light first made? Pip Rich delves into the history of Original BTC's compelling icon, a favourite of Sir Terence Conran that still looks fresh today

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We talk a lot at Livingetc about 'timeless design', making choices that won't date and will feel cool and contemporary forever. For the past few years, those choices have tended to include white bouclé, marble, rounded edges and some sort of indoor tree and you wonder if these statements are as timeless as we think – or if we'll look back in 10 years from our square-cornered leather sofas and realise how 2020s that aesthetic was. But every now and then a design emerges that is truly timeless, that transcends eras, looking as fresh now as it did when it was envisioned. Step forward Original BTC's Hector series of lights. This series, with its mid-century sensibilities, its 90s industrialism and its heralding of British craft, looks like it could have been created any time in the last 65 years. It was, in fact, designed in 1990 by the brand's founder Peter Bowles.