From Dior to Dimore: Designer Osanna Visconti Shapes the Future of Italian Design

Earlier this year, the Italian artisan Osanna Visconti joined Whitewall for a conversation at Dior’s boutique in Milan, moderated by Maria Cristina Didero. There, Visconti shared insight into her latest pieces and collaborations, including with Dior, Dimorestudio, and Hosoo. Born from a unique creative technique of lost-wax casting, Visconti creates a replica of the piece in wax before realizing it in bronze. One of the oldest known metal-forming techniques, dating back 6,000 years, this approach was once used by some of the world’s greatest sculptors, like Rodin and Camille Claudel. Through this technique, details are preserved for centuries—an idea important to Visconti, regardless of design, balancing permanence and impermanence.

For Dior, Visconti created an organic collection of bronze pieces that celebrated bits of nature found at the brand’s homes—like flowers and Vimini baskets found at Musée Christian Dior in Granville and Christian Dior’s Château de La Colle Noire in Provence. “On one hand, I wanted to imbue these objects with Christian Dior’s signature savoir-faire, bringing his distinct aesthetic into the designs,” she said. “On the other hand, I wanted to convey femininity and the female essence, designing thoughtful and delicate shaped objects that carried with them strength.” 

During Milan Design Week, Visconti also unveiled a partnership with Dimorestudio and the Kyoto-based textile company Hosoo. Titled the “Hemispheres” collection, it united Visconti’s sculptural bronze designs with Japanese textile heritage and Dimorestudio’s design aesthetics. Staged organically in her atelier were nature-focused furniture items made in true Visconti fashion: lost-wax cast bronze bamboo bookshelves, mirrors, tables, and stools adorned with branches and flowers. Shelves with red wax chandeliers and candlestick holders showed a look into the first step of her technique, later turned into bronze. After the presentation, the designer shared with Whitewall a look at her practice and how, on a quest for beauty and functionality, her work makes expiring objects eternal. 

Honoring Ancient Techniques Through Modern Design

WHITEWALL: This year, you are unveiling several new collaborations. Can you tell us about the different partners you’re working with and how each partnership has influenced your creative process? 

OSANNA VISCONTI: Six months ago, Emiliano Salci came to me, telling me that he was just back from Kyoto where he had been working on the archives of this incredible company named Hosoo, which has been producing fabrics since 1688—for kimonos for the imperial families. He was very excited to design a new collection of fabrics for this company, and he wanted to know how he could show this new collection in a way that people can understand. He asked if I wanted to collaborate and produce some bronze pieces inspired by this collection. 

I produced some pieces inspired by their patterns and fabrics featuring nature—branches, leaves, and flowers. Bamboo often appears in the fabrics, too, so I made some bookshelves in bamboo, and some cabinets with the bamboo leaves and the bamboo branches. The three of us came together to create a magical space. 

WW: You mentioned you wanted to keep it after the show.

OV: Yes. This is my atelier, so I’m happy to keep all the pieces here so people can come to see them even after Milan Design Week. We often have clients coming from all over the world—architects, designers—and I think they can really get the essence of this collection—mine and also Hosoo’s. I think it’s interesting to see these three rooms decorated as if they were an apartment. You don’t come here and see a gallery; you see a house alive with couches, stools, screens, cabinets, lamps. 

“Every piece is unique, so every time is a new challenge.”

-Osanna Visconti

WW: Materiality is a defining element of your work, especially your pioneering use of a lost-wax casting technique. How do you approach adapting this artisanal method when collaborating with different brands or creatives?

OV: This is a very old technique—the lost-wax technique. I like it because I can shape the wax with my hands. The idea that I have in my head, I can see it immediately while shaping the wax. When I do the casting of the wax, I have the exact pieces that I had in mind in bronze. During the process of putting together the leaves and the branches, it might change. So, the creativity keeps going. The creative process ends after I have first shaped the wax and then fused and sizzled the bronze. 

Sometimes I start from an idea, and I end with a completely different thing, but that’s a very good and interesting challenge that I like to take on every piece. Every piece is unique, so every time is a new challenge. That’s the thing that most excites me because you know where you start, but you never know where you finish. It’s always a new story. 

Functional Bronze Pieces Inspired by Nature

WW: Your pieces often blur the line between sculpture and design. How do you strike the balance between aesthetic expression and functionality, particularly when designing for special collections or environments?

OV: I consider myself an artisan and not an artist because I try to do functional pieces. But I always try to make them with a high aesthetic. I try to make them beautiful, because I’m always in search of beauty, but I also like and try to combine that with functional elements. It’s the function that actually is the start. I try to find a balance between function and beauty. 

“What I like is giving eternity to this moment because making it in bronze, it will last forever.”

-Osanna Visconti

WW: Several of your new pieces for Milan Design Week are inspired by nature. What continues to draw you to organic forms? How do you translate those inspirations into a contemporary design?

OV: Nature has always fascinated me. I love gardening, I love walking in the mountains, by the sea, in the countryside. I get a lot of inspiration from nature. I observe leaves and branches—they are really works of art in themselves. What interests me is the way everybody interprets nature. This is the way I interpreted nature. I try to give eternity to a certain moment, like a flower blossoming. It only lasts a couple of days. What I like is giving eternity to this moment because making it in bronze, it will last forever. 

We have bronze pieces from 2,000 years before Christ, so bronze will survive us, for sure. This is my homage to the beauty of nature. That’s why when I did my bamboo bookshelves, I tried to use bamboo in the most natural way—as if wind passed through it. 

WW: How do you feel your work is contributing to the evolution of Italian design globally?

OV: I feel so tiny in the world of design. Sometimes I don’t even consider myself a designer^—I consider myself an artisan because when you speak about design, you think about industrial design—many, many pieces. I do one of a kind, with a very long process. It takes three months to make a console, for example. So, I really feel tiny, but I think that in this Milan Design Week, I’m very proud that almost 1,000 people per day came to see my work. One of my pieces is at the Italian Embassy in Paris. I’m contributing as an ambassador of Italian design in a way. I’m proud of that, of course, and to represent a certain type of Italian savoir-faire.