Meet eight rising female designers shaping the future of furniture and interiors with bold ideas, conscious materials and a fresh approach to timeless design.
Federica Biasi
Federica Biasi, a prominent designer and art director known for her expressive yet straightforward style, was born in Saronno, Italy 1989. She refined her abilities in Amsterdam after earning an honours degree from the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan in 2011, where she was exposed to Nordic design ideas that prioritise clean aesthetics and formal simplicity. She opened her firm in Milan in 2015, specialising in interior design, design consulting and product design.
Biasi creates designs with delicate lines and well-balanced proportions by skillfully fusing Scandinavian restraint with Italian workmanship. Reputable companies like Nespresso, Lema, Gervasoni, Gallotti & Radice, Manerba, Mingardo, Leolux and Wittmann are among those she has collaborated with. Her ability to combine handmade methods with industrial processes is particularly evident in her ‘Lume’ line for Nespresso.
Biasi was honoured for her contributions to design in 2021 when she won Young Talent of the Year at the Elle Deco International Design Awards. In 2018, she was selected as one of the six Italian Rising Talents at Maison & Objet. Her dedication to style, practicality and cultural fusion has had a lasting impression on modern design.
Serena Confalonieri
Milan-based designer and art director Serena Confalonieri is renowned for her vivid, graphic style that combines graphic, textile, product and interior design. Bold colour schemes, geometric shapes and whimsical elements — often combining zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs — are characteristics of her work. She taught at Politecnico di Milano and obtained experience in studios in Berlin, Barcelona and Milan after receiving a master’s degree in interior design. She began working with companies including Saba Italia, cc-tapis and Wall&decò with the Flamingo rug for Nodus at Milan Design Week in 2013.
Confalonieri’s designs have appeared in magazines like Wallpaper and The New York Times and at exhibitions like La Triennale di Milano and Rossana Orlandi Gallery. She has won awards such as the German Design Award and the Young & Design Award. A notable example of her dedication to sustainability and social impact is her “Jambo” collection, which was developed in collaboration with the Kenyan NGO Ocean Sole and turns recycled flip-flops into colourful vases.
Chiara Andreatti
Italian designer Chiara Andreatti is well known for her elegant combination of classic craftsmanship and modern style. She studied industrial design at Milan’s Istituto Europeo di Design and earned a master’s degree at Domus Academy after being born close to Venice. She developed her talents during her ten years at Lissoni Associati, which resulted in partnerships with prestigious companies like Fendi Casa, Lema, Potocco, and Glas Italia.
As seen by her 2019 iF Design Award-winning Loïe armchair for Gebrüder Thonet Vienna, Andreatti’s design philosophy strongly emphasises lyrical forms and natural materials. With the “WELCOME!” project, she commemorated Fendi’s tenth anniversary at Design Miami in 2018, demonstrating her ability to reimagine brand legacy using natural materials and delicate forms. In addition to designing products, Andreatti has worked as an art director for businesses like Radici Contract, Texturae, Karpeta, BottegaNove, and Potocco. Her work has appeared in prestigious magazines including Domus, Wallpaper*, and Elle Decor and is distinguished by a tasteful fusion of elegance and genuineness.
Nika Zupanc
Slovenian interior and product designer Nika Zupanc is well-known for her dramatic, expressive approach to modern design. Following her 2000 graduation with honours from the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, she became well-known worldwide when the Lolita lamp for Moooi was introduced. Since opening her studio in 2008, she has continuously created art that combines a distinctly feminine sense with contemporary culture.
Zupanc’s creations have been exhibited worldwide, notably at Milan Design Week, and she has collaborated with prestigious brands including Moooi, Qeeboo, Dior, Driade, and Natuzzi. The “Take Me to Miami” collection for Ghidini 1961 and the “Room of One’s Own” installation for Dior are noteworthy examples. Her work has won awards such as the German Design Award and the Archiproducts Design Award. Nika Zupanc: Breaking the Rules, a monograph released by Rizzoli in 2022, summarises her creative accomplishments in design.
Faye Toogood
British designer Faye Toogood is renowned for her ability to fluidly combine fashion, interior design, sculpture, and furniture. She started as an editor at The World of Interiors after graduating from the University of Bristol with a BA in Art History. In 2008, she founded Studio Toogood. Her famous Roly-Poly chair, which has come to represent her design philosophy, is a prime example of her work’s sculptural aesthetic and intense involvement with raw materials. Toogood’s works are in permanent collections like the National Gallery of Victoria and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Her “WOMANIFESTO!” project, which explored issues of femininity and surrealism, won her the Designer of the Year title at Maison&Objet in 2025. Her recent “Lucid Dreams” exhibition in New York, which included delicate rice paper lamps and hand-painted furniture influenced by Japanese aesthetics, signalled a change toward more expressive and intuitive design. Toogood continues to push the limits of conventional design via her varied collection of work, promoting inclusivity and emotional resonance in the artistic process.
Sabine Marcelis
Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis is well known for her sculpture-based approach to light and materiality. She opened her studio in Rotterdam in 2011 after earning her degree from the Design Academy Eindhoven, where she uses installations, objects, and spatial experiences to investigate the relationship between art and design. Pure forms that emphasise material qualities are a defining feature of Marcelis’s work, frequently using natural stone, glass, and resin to produce sensory experiences.
Her partnerships include a wide range of sectors, including work with design firms like CC-Tapis and Mathmos and fashion labels like Céline and Isabel Marant. Notably, she uses felted wool dyed in distinctive colours to reimagine traditional Japanese tatami mats in her “Stroke” rug collection for cc-tapis. Institutions such as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Museum of Modern Art in New York have permanent collections that include Marcelis’ creations. She has received multiple awards for her creative achievements, including the Dezeen Awards 2024 and Wallpaper*’s ‘Designer of the Year’ in 2020.
Elisa Ossino
Milan-based architect and designer Elisa Ossino, born in Sicily, is renowned for her poetic yet minimalist style that combines geometric abstraction with surrealist and philosophical elements. She established Elisa Ossino Studio in 2006 after completing her studies at Politecnico di Milano, specialising in product design, art direction, set design, and residential and retail interiors. Essential lines and a feeling of scenographic suspension, which provide a logical relationship between light, objects, and space, are characteristics of her work.
Working with companies like Boffi, De Padova, Molteni, and Salvatori, Ossino has received recognition for her Balnea line, which included the EDIDA 2020 ‘Best Bathroom’ award. Her work has been shown worldwide, including in 2016 at the Triennale Design Museum’s “W-Women in Italian Design” exhibition. She co-founded the surface design and transdisciplinary installation brand H+O in 2019. Ossino is also an academic, having taught at Istituto Marangoni and IUAV University of Venice.
Francesca Lanzavecchia
Italian designer Francesca Lanzavecchia was born in Pavia in 1983 and is well-known for her varied and sympathetic approach to design. She graduated with honours from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2008 with a Master’s in Conceptual Design after earning a degree in Industrial Design from Politecnico di Milano. Between Pavia and Singapore, she and Hunn Wai co-founded the multidisciplinary firm Lanzavecchia + Wai in 2010.
Her dedication to Universal Design, which prioritises the human experience, is evident in her furniture, products, and interior design work. Lanzavecchia’s designs frequently mirror daily routines and individual stories, acting as both practical and symbolic extensions of the self. Projects with FIAM Italia, such as the “Halo” coffee table and “Shift” mirror, are noteworthy examples of her work that demonstrate her ability to combine poetic elegance with material innovation. She is regarded as a key person in modern design because of her contributions, which are valued for their emotional resonance, versatility, and inclusivity.
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