If you watched the Oscars Sunday night, you could not have failed to notice the variety of metallic, shimmering dresses. Jennifer Lopez wore an iridescent powder pink affair that made her look as if she’d stepped out of Botticelli’s famed clamshell. Cameron Diaz showed off an aureate number that made her look as if she’d been dipped in a confectioner’s golden flakes. And Helen Mirren stepped out in a sparkling silver that made her look as if she’d come straight from Cinderella’s ball. Glitter is in. It’s truly horrible of me to mention these pop culture affairs in the same post as Studio Roso’s fabulous chandelier, but I couldn’t resist. I love everything shiny–especially in chandeliers.

Mirror Chandelier. Designed by Studio Roso.

London-based partnership Studio Roso is made up of two graduates from the Royal College of Art: Sophie Nielsen and Rolf Knudsen (who sound like James Bond villains). Their aesthetic blends old and new; they like “merging high tech with organic shapes,” something that is evident in Mirror Chandelier, their new piece for Boston’s Ames Hotel, which is appropriately housed in one of the city’s first skyscrapers. And since both the Ames Hotel and Studio Roso like to mix elements that tend to be at odds, this is a perfect philosophical and design match. Studio Roso believes, “The most interesting things come from challenging boundaries”–a boutique hotel in an antique building, a metal chandelier against a mosaic ceiling. Mirror Chandelier is actually composed of 12,000 metalized discs that react with movement, glinting at guests or wind (and opening lobby doors in Boston winters will usually get you some of that). Clinging to a winding branch form, these discs resemble twinkling aspen leaves forever trapped by a freezing potion.