Born in Innsbruck, Austria, and now living in Milan, Italy, Marc Sadler’s career began with a passion for technology and experimentation with new materials. It was through one of his experimental projects (a ski-boot in thermoplastic material) that he began to work in the sports sector and, in 1971, began a collaboration with Caber, for which he later patented the symmetrical shell design which was to remain the most successful ski-boot of its kind for several years.

After years spent dedicating his efforts to the sports and industrial sectors, picking up a number of accolades for his landmark designs, Sadler’s activity branched into furniture, including the technical-specialised segment, where he continues to work with prominent companies. It wasn’t until the late 1990s that Sadler was recognised for his lighting design skills.

First designing the Drop lamp for Flos, Sadler now has an ongoing creative relationship with Italian lighting company Foscarini. This partnership resulted in the birth of Twiggy in 2006, which followed earlier designs for Foscarini Tite and Mite (2000), Lite (2001), and Kite (2003), all of which take elements from Sadler’s design philosophy.   

“I like to experiment with different techniques and technologies to use in unusual applications, trying to obtain new and possibly pleasing effects,” he says. “I’m lucky enough to work in very diverse sectors and I’ve come to realise that often in industry, knowledge is placed in hermetically sealed compartments, not passing from one sector to another. However in the case of my collaboration with Foscarini on the Twiggy project, and also the previous ones, Tite and Mite, we used a technology that has been around for a while in the sports sector that I was very familiar with.”