6
D E S I G N E R
TO THE
STARS
Born in 1922, Italian artist and designer Gabriella Crespi would
have turned 100 this year. Throughout her extraordinary ca-
reer in the design world, she moved effortlessly among both
European royalty and the Hollywood jet set. Her indisputable
glamour and sophisticated sense of style made her a muse to
the fashion designer Valentino, and brought the likes of Au-
drey Hepburn, Gianni Versace, and Hubert de Givenchy into
her social circle. As a designer, it was her gift for streamlined
forms and lavish material finishes that won her a dedicated
following and saw her become a coveted partner to presti-
gious fashion houses ranging from Dior to Stella McCartney.
Crespi’s aesthetic was characterized by dualities, pairing
modernist functionality with an eye for the baroque, and shift-
ing between clean lines and sensuous curves. When she died
aged 95 in 2017, she left behind a repertoire of more than two
thousand pieces, spanning furniture, jewelry, and sculpture
– all imbued with an eclectic style that embraced both the
organically whimsical and the formally geometric.
Crespi’s daughter Elisabetta Crespi now heads up Archivio
Gabriella Crespi. “My mother was utterly Milanese,” she says.
“She had extraordinary taste, stemming from her inner pas-
sions and bohemian lifestyle. She was naturally elegant and
didn’t follow mainstream fashion; instead, she favored a cul-
tivated simplicity in her aesthetic. She was modern, daring
- almost radical in her propositions. From her innate allur-
ing qualities to the inviting furniture she designed, everything
was sophisticated yet unconventional, with a warm, human,
and sensuous feel to it.”
Bohemian 72 Ottoman
Bohemian 72 Floor Lamp
