Italian design pioneer Gabriella Crespi dies at 95

Gabriella Crespi, a pioneering Italian designer who blended design with artisanal craftsmanship, died in mid-February 2017 in Milan at age 95. Born in 1922, she studied architecture at the Politecnico di Milano in the 1940s, a time when women were discouraged from the field. Her career was brief but prolific, spanning from the early 1970s to 1987, when she moved to India. She is known for iconic pieces like the "Dama" table (1970) and the "Yang Yin" desk-bookcase (1979), part of the "Plurimi" series inspired by artist Emilio Vedova. Her work attracted famous clients including Grace Kelly, Shah Reza Pahlavi, Lenny Kravitz, and Stella McCartney. In 2015, after a long retreat in the Himalayas, she made a comeback with a limited-edition collection of nine sculptural furniture pieces co-designed with her daughter Elisabetta, presented at Fuorisalone. A retrospective titled "Il segno e lo spirito" was held at Palazzo Reale in Milan in 2011.