PINCH's Anders pendant began as a photo-shoot prop and took five years to perfect

The young studio (founded 2004) needed a photogenic light; manufacturers offered to mould the shape in plastic, but the softness of fabric was the point.

Freeze a Lanvin dress mid-swish into a lampshade: layered fabric drapes that look loosely thrown but are individually cut, stiffened, sewn and pinned by hand.

A milliner's techniques replaced a tailor's; banana fiber gave the shade translucency; each layer is cut, stiffened, sewn and pinned, with the drape angles checked one by one over five years of development.

PINCH now calls the Anders one of its most requested designs, and the shade has been adapted into a wall light — for an object that was never meant to be sold.

The Anders pendant began in 2009 as a prop: Russell Pinch, whose studio dates to 2004, needed a light to hang above a table while photographing his furniture. The shape came from a fashion magazine — a Lanvin dress whose outer skirt lifts in motion to reveal the layers beneath. He made a rough model in fabric to explore it, conceived for the photograph, not for sale.

Making the model buildable took five years. A creative director at Jasper Conran steered him from tailors to a milliner — hat-making carried the construction knowledge the draped form needed. Manufacturers offered to make the shade in plastic; Pinch refused, wanting a material that kept fabric's softness. Banana fiber proved the answer, translucent enough to diffuse light through the layers.

The finished shade is still assembled by hand: layers cut, stiffened, sewn and pinned, then shaped in place, with makers checking each drape's angle even though the result is meant to look loosely formed. PINCH now counts the Anders among its most requested designs, and the shade has been adapted into a wall light.

The design's whole point was fabric softness, so the obvious manufacturing shortcut — moulded plastic — would have killed the reason it existed.

The milliner referral moved the problem to the one craft that already knew how to build stiff, draped fabric forms.

Hand assembly preserved the tension between loose-looking drape and controlled angles that gives the shade its photographed motion.

Some products deserve five years: refusing the easy plastic version kept the fabric softness that made the design worth keeping at all.

PINCH says the Anders is now among the studio's most requested designs, with a wall-light version extending the range; production remains hand assembly of banana-fiber layers. The source quotes Pinch via Livingetc and gives no sales figures.