Joe Colombo for Arnolfo di Cambio, Smoke: design and (top) some pieces from the set, 1964
Peter Stämpfli, Party, 1964. Private collection
In the early 1960s there was widespread conviction that the western system could create wellbeing for all. Consumer goods became household status symbols and a tool for social integration. Advertising, particularly on television, helped to develop new mass models and consumptions, strongly shaping the collective imagination. These changes in society did not escape the notice of the great masters of Pop Art. The artists celebrated American consumerism by focusing on all the products that formed the everyday 'landscape' of the society of wellbeing. Pop Art also inspired Italian designers such as Joe Colombo, Ettore Sottsass and Marco Zanuso who, freed from the restrictions of Modernism, let themselves go in the playful spirit of the period and began to 'play around' with new subjects. The Smoke glass, designed by Joe Colombo, was created within this artistic and cultural context. With its eccentric shape and meaning, this object allowed the user to hold the glass and a cigarette at the same time, making it ideal for eating on your feet and the new ritual of the party
