Inside Fonderia Fendi by Conie Vallese at Design Miami 2025
- Leigh Nordstrom
- Dec 9
- 3 min read
The Italian brand tapped the artist and designer for its 2025 Design Miami collectible design showcase.
Conie Vallese inside the Fonderia Fendi booth at Design Miami. Courtesy of Robin Hill
“The yellow is very yellow,” says artist Conie Vallese, motioning to the spread ahead of her. Indeed, the Fendi booth inside Design Miami is easy to spot upon arrival, thanks to its sunny hue. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Fendi, the brand tapped Vallese to be this year’s designer of their Design Miami 2025 exhibition.
Titled “Fonderia Fendi,” the exhibit is a collectible design showcase that incorporated five Italian ateliers to fabricate one-of-a-kind pieces for Fendi in bronze, ceramic, glass, carpet and leather. The ateliers include the ceramic studio Officine Saffi Lab, carpet weavers CC-Tapis, the 13th century Venetian glass studio Barovier & Toso, Milanese bronze foundry Fonderia Battaglia and Fendi’s own leather workshops. She also reimagined the handle of a Fendi Peekaboo handbag, with a ceramic handle and diagonal stripe.
The Peekaboo bag by Conie Vallese. ROBIN HILL
“I think the bag is very joyful and summer and bright and sunshine and Miami,” she says.
Vallese was working in Athens in April when she got a message from the 2025 Design Miami curator, Dan Thawley, with a mysterious message about an upcoming project. He revealed he’d suggested her to Silvia Fendi to be Fendi’s designer for this year’s fair.
“I knew of Art Basel and I had an idea of Design Miami, but I had never done a fair like this, so I wasn’t sure what to expect,” the Argentinian artist says. “But the first thing I thought was yellow sunshine, something bright, optimistic. So I kind of put it into a soft palette, and now that I see it all very strong and yellow, I’m super happy because I feel like it’s the sunshine of the fair. You come around the corner and it’s right here, and it does feel very joyful. And I think that that was one of the things that I wanted to bring into the atmosphere of the work and this space itself, which was very important to create something that feels welcoming and warm and optimistic and happy, which we need.”
Fonderia Fendi by Conie Vallese. Robin Hill/Courtesy of Fendi
The concepts began to take shape over a six-hour meeting with Silvia Fendi in Rome. Vallese, who is currently based in Milan after many years in New York, knew she wanted to include many different supplies in the project.
“Lately in my practice I have enjoyed a lot of collaboration and this exchange of ideas and learning from others,” she says. “I wanted to embrace togetherness, and this is not just me. This is so many people together.”
Vallese has been working with bronze, “a material I absolutely love,” for the past couple years, sculpting in wax and then casting in bronze with Fonderia Battaglia. The other partners came from various parts of Italy, and Vallese didn’t see the pieces all together until the installation in Miami.
“It is funny because when you work, you’re going to Venice to do the glass, and then you’re in Milan doing the bronze, and then you don’t see it together until it comes to the booth,” she says. “And they all work together.”
Fonderia Fendi by Conie Vallese. ROBIN HILL
Fonderia Fendi by Conie Vallese. Robin Hill/Courtesy of Fendi
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