In Memoriam

edited by Sheila Kim -- Interior Design, 1/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Mary Bright

Curtain designer Mary Bright died on November 29 at the age of 48, after a long battle with cancer. Born in Edinburgh in 1954, this extraordinary artisan moved to New York in 1979 and worked as a milliner prior to founding her own studio. She received much attention for her sometimes whimsical—and always dramatic—experiments with nontraditional curtain materials such as corrugated paper and metal meshes. Many of her commissions were for celebrities, her first client being actress Ellen Barkin. Bright later contributed her expertise to exhibition design, most notably for "Mies in Berlin" at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2001. She is survived by her husband, David Paskin.

Achille Castiglioni

Achille Castiglioni died at his own home in Milan on December 2. He was 84. Widely known for his Mezzadro stool and Arco lamp—both of them designed with his brother Pier Giacomo—the Italian legend also worked on architectural and urban-planning commissions such as the Montecatini pavilion at the Milan Trade Fair in 1962. Winner of nine Compasso d'Oro awards, he was the subject of a 1997 show at New York's Museum of Modern Art, which incidentally owns 14 of his pieces. He is survived by his wife, Irma, and three children.