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D avid Netto designed his new lighting collaboration with Soane Britain — purveyor of classic English Country house style — like an actor preparing for a role. "I like to get into character when I design," says Netto, who envisioned a particular interior or style of house for each lamp and shade. "These are my favorite lamps from history and from my travels, interpreted through the medium of rattan." Netto is an interior designer with projects published in Vogue, Elle Decor, and Architectural Digest, but he's also an accomplished writer with a penchant for research — he's authored a monograph on the work of François Catroux, pens the "Case Studies" column for Town & Country, and is at work on a book about Stephen Sills. Inspirations for Netto's nine lighting designs for Soane include Hubert de Givenchy's house on the Côte d'Azur, Le Clos Fiorentin; Netto designed his Rattan Bouillotte Hanging Light after a lamp that hung in one of its sitting rooms in the 1990s. His Lourmarin lamps pay homage to Provençal design and are named after the country town of Lourmarin in the Luberon, where François Catroux lived. Netto, who lives in a modern Richard Neutra-designed house in L.A., culled inspiration from the city's Trousdale neighborhood of mid-century houses for his Trousdale angular wall and floor lamps. He also translated the Bad Kitty cocktail at London restaurant Kitty Fisher's — with its delightful mix of gin, sloe gin, elderflower, lemon, and cava — into a table lamp with a bell-shaped shade. David Netto for Soane Britain, $1,750 to $7,750, at soane.co.uk. By Rebecca Sherman DAVID NETTO SEES THE LIGHT Clockwise from top left: Trousdale floor lamp; Trousdale wall light; David Netto; Lourmarin wall light. 66