We don't add brands to our range lightly. After more than twenty years designing and specifying lighting, we've seen enough come and go to know the difference between a brand that genuinely stands for something and one that's good at looking like it does. Tooy is the former, and it's taken us time to find it.
We've just completed our first Tooy specification and the fittings are on their way. A permanent display is going into our showroom this summer. And we're expanding the range on our website as we go deeper into it. This is the beginning of what we expect to be a long relationship with a brand we believe in.
Here's why.
Where Tooy comes from
The brand was founded in 2015 by Valeria Giacomozzi and Valerio Tidei — but the story behind it goes back much further. Valeria's family company, Gibas, has been producing custom lighting in the Marche region of central Italy since 1959. That's six decades of manufacturing knowledge, supplier relationships, and understanding what quality actually requires before Tooy ever existed as a brand.
It shows in the product. Everything is made in Italy, at their facility in Amandola in the Fermo province, with a showroom in Milan. When Tooy say Made in Italy, they mean it in the full sense — not assembled in Italy from parts sourced elsewhere, but conceived, engineered, and built there.
The designers they work with
This is where Tooy really separates itself. Rather than developing a house style and hiring designers to work within it, they give collaborators genuine creative freedom and build collections around what those designers want to say. The result is a range that feels diverse and alive rather than variations on a theme.
Corrado Dotti came to Tooy after working with Matteo Thun and Armani Casa. He's designed more collections for the brand than anyone else — Gordon, Legier, Lilly, Filipa and Excalibur among them. His work has a clarity to it, an understanding of proportion and material that means his pieces feel right in a room without demanding attention.
Roberto Giacomucci's Bilancella is something quite different. Flat, minimal, almost severe — it's a fitting that treats light as a precise, considered thing rather than a decorative gesture. It's not for every project but when it's right it's very right.
Duccio Maria Gambi designed the Igor collection. He's a Florence-based designer who works as much in the world of art as design, and Igor reflects that. It's geometrically sophisticated, quietly unusual, and the kind of fitting that interior designers tend to stop and look at properly rather than scroll past.
Beyond these, Tooy works with Studiopepe, Federica Biasi, Federico Peri, Fabio Fantolino, and Marco Casamonti of Studio Archea. The breadth of that list tells you something about the ambition of the brand.
The collections
Everything we sell from Tooy is made to order. That means each fitting is produced specifically for your project, to your chosen finish and configuration. There are no stock compromises and no off-the-shelf versions. As a result, Tooy fittings cannot be returned unless they arrive faulty or damaged. We'd ask anyone specifying to be sure before they order, and we're happy to spend time helping with that.
Gordon
Corrado Dotti's take on the classic conical diffuser in brass. It's a deceptively simple idea executed with real confidence — the shape is familiar but the proportion and finish give it a weight and presence that cheaper interpretations don't have. Available across pendants, wall lights in half a dozen configurations, table lamp, ceiling light and chandeliers. As comfortable in a hospitality project as a private home.
Legier
Inspired by the Murano glass perfume bottles that have sat on Italian dressing tables for generations. Hand-blown opal white or fumè glass diffusers on sand black powder-coated metal with brushed brass or light grey detail. Available in 25cm and 35cm versions as a pendant, table lamp, wall light and flush ceiling fitting. The kind of piece that photographs beautifully and looks even better in person.
Lilly
The lightest feeling collection in the range. Fabric and micro-mesh diffusers on a powder-coated frame, drawing on Japanese and Asian minimalist design. It's quiet, which is actually quite hard to achieve. Available as pendants in three sizes, table lamp, side table, wall light and floor lamp. Genuinely one of the most versatile collections we stock for residential interiors.
Filipa
A stylisation of the traditional Chinese lantern, designed by Corrado Dotti. A double sphere of borosilicate glass with sand black and sand grey metal, or two-tone leather detailing if you want something a little richer. Available as a pendant, table lamp and wall light. From £719.
Igor
The most architectural piece in the range. Duccio Maria Gambi has designed something that sits somewhere between a light fitting and a sculpture — minimal in profile, precise in geometry, available in matte black or satin nickel as a vertical or horizontal pendant. It can stand on its own or be grouped into a composition. The kind of fitting designers tend to specify on the strength of one photograph and then become very attached to.
Bilancella
Roberto Giacomucci's most restrained design and perhaps his best. Supremely flat, available as a pendant in 25cm and 40cm versions and as a ceiling and wall fitting, in sand black or satin bronze. It doesn't try to be noticed, and that's exactly what makes it work.
Come and see them
We're installing a permanent Tooy display in our showroom this summer and will be letting our trade contacts know when it opens. We're one of very few places in the UK where you'll be able to see these fittings in person before specifying them. For anyone working on a project where finish, scale and material quality genuinely matter, that's worth making the trip for.
Both retail and trade enquiries are welcome. For designers and architects, we're also happy to talk through Tooy's custom programme, which runs to non-standard finishes, dimensional variations and fully bespoke pieces developed directly with their team.
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