A GLASS ACT FROM ITALY
They call her the “Lady of Glass” in Milan. She is Silvia Gallotti, CEO of Italian lifestyle brand Gallotti & Radice, which made its name with its glass pieces for the home. She is the daughter of Pierangelo Gallotti, who founded the company in 1956 with friend Luigi Radice.
Silvia was in town recently to introduce the brand, along with Stefano Vagelli, Gallotti & Radice’s head of Gruppo Dima (Template Group).
“My father was born in Milano and Luigi Radice was from Cermenate, where the factory is located today,” Silvia says. “They met because they went to a drawing school at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, became friends and started together to work in this little atelier as glass engravers.”
Engraving was popular at the time, so the pair would engrave glass for clients like the king of Austria, and chandelier and furniture companies.
“And then they decided to create their own collection,” Silvia recalls. “My father was very good in design. He was very creative. So a lot of pieces were designed by him.”
Gallotti & Radice started with lighting, accessories and glass pieces held together with metal, but over the years, the company evolved. “With us, the second generation, we started adding other materials, other technologies, and today we have 360 degrees — a total living collection, from the living room and dining room to bedroom,” Silvia says.
They like to contrast styles and materials, “so very contemporary lines together with traditional ones, and very shiny materials with very spotted and rough ones.” “So it becomes timeless,” adds Vagelli. Today the brand is known for its “Gentle Touch” — a softer, more cocooning aesthetic with its curvilinear forms and muted tones, a unique proposition coming from a country known for its machismo and a market flooded with hard-edged modern furniture.
“The brand’s very feminine,” observes Ferdinand “Ferdi” Ong, general manager of Living Innovations Corp., which distributes Gallotti & Radice and other European home brands in the Philippines. “When you see the furniture it’s more organic, but the contrast of materials creates a very timeless look. And it’s not as high-priced as Italian luxury brands, but it’s a premium brand.”
One of Gallotti’s most iconic pieces is Bolle (“bubble” in Italian), hanging and floor lamps featuring delicate spheres of glass that are mouth-blown in Murano. “It’s very difficult now to find people that are able to blow a big dimension of glass; that’s something that is going to disappear soon, unfortunately,” laments Silvia. “Of course we are investing in order to keep this tradition alive.”
Another iconic piece is the curved Audrey sofa, designed by Massimo Castagna. “That was the beginning of Gallotti & Radice (going) towards lifestyle,” Silvia says.
The Audrey highlights a curved, very organic-looking shape. “They created something out of the mold of the typical sofa with an arm and a back and really square,” notes Ferdi. “Four years ago when they started it was very unique because everybody was looking at the sofa when it was an L shape, or a single three-seater, but when they created this, everything changed. The composition became very feminine but still organic, so people started thinking about how to present the layout of the living room not in this whole conventional way.”
For its collections Gallotti & Radice likes to collaborate with renowned designers like Massimo Castagna, who designed their first lifestyle collection, Pietro Russo and and Studiopepe. “They are quite popular in Italy and abroad,” Silvia says about the latter. “We started collaborating a few years ago, and I think they have a very good vision of what’s innovative in terms of design.”
Studiopepe designed Roundcut, a shelving system in which you can play not only with its wall position but also mix and match materials like marble and mirrors.
“It’s the first time you’ve seen an array of textures that makes a blank wall look spectacular,” enthuses Ferdi.
Silvia herself designs accessories, and says her inspirations come from travel, art: “Everything may be an inspiration — nature, for example. But I only do small accessories. I don’t want to compete too much with the designers,” she laughs.
I asked Silvia what was the most valuable lesson she learned from her father, and the Lady of Glass replies, “Passion. Unfortunately he is not with us anymore, but how much a creative job like this may be your passion. That feeling inside, and it gives you energy to do more and more.”