Valley of lights

Switched on to the world by digitalisation, US lighting giant Hudson Valley Lighting is enjoying new opportunities in the Middle East, Europe and beyond.

Working with leading US-based lighting designers, the lighting firm – which has been illuminating the interiors of many of the UAE’s most prestigious hotels and palaces – is planning on taking a more focused approached to our market.

The company’s founder, David Littman, says the internet has helped raise both awareness and exports of his lights. “Through our social media and digital campaigns, we suddenly became more global – people were finding us, dealers contacting us,” he enthused.

David Littman

“We have enjoyed a long relationship with Four Seasons Ramesh Gallery and have been doing business with them for the past 14-15 years. Now we are in the process of establishing another new partnership and concept with Marina Home.” The first collection with Marina Home will be available in the UAE during the Spring/Summer season.

Littman, whose family has been in the lighting industry since the 1930s, also attributes his brand’s new global expansion to the decision to start wiring to CE standards, in order to make the products compliant with the wiring and electrical standards in countries outside the US and Canada.

In addition to its four factories in the US, Hudson Valley Lighting also manufactures in Asia – in China, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Indonesia – and is looking at partnering or building a facility in Poland, Romania or Ukraine.

“Our philosophy is to ensure that our designs have a historical reference. Something may have been first seen hundreds of years ago, but we take that design and manufacture it to meet today’s interior demands and trends – giving a contemporary feel. Our designs are historically informed and ahead of trend,” said Littman.

“We currently have about 10,000 designs and there are possibly 100 that clients in the US and Canada easily identify as being ours. The four main brands – Corbett, Hudson, Mitzi and Troy – all have very distinct and individual personalities. Mitzi is the younger brand, more suited to e-commerce, while Troy has a modern industrial look…” stated Littman.

“The role of the interior designer is becoming more important in most parts of the world and increasingly we are working more closely with designers in order to develop the product lines and designs, in collaboration with our design team,” he added.

The brand also collaborates with leading designers such as multi-award-winning LA-based British designer Martyn Lawrence Bullard.

Interior designer and tastemaker Corey Damen Jenkins also designs for the firm. Jenkins mixes vibrant colours with layered patterns to create spaces that are at once elegant, inventive, and timeless.

Another notable designer is Mark D Sikes, whose talent for mixing American and European, traditional and modern, and new and old sensibilities sets him apart in the interior design world.