Treasure Hunt at Alessi

Cristina Kiran Piotti visits the Alessi Museum in Omegna, Italy, and discovers India-inspired creations in the archive of an iconic Italian design house.

At the Alessi Museum, displayed on long shelves that wrap around a central corridor, are rows of coffee sets, cups, prototypes, sketches and more that embody Italian design history. The museum and brand headquarters are in the north of Italy in Omegna, not far from Lake Orta. This is where Giovanni Alessi founded a brass and steel foundry in 1921.

Things changed in the 1970s when the founder's grandson, Alberto, pivoted to balancing industry and art. He began making objects that were functional as well as artistic, relying on the creativity of Italian design masters-Ettore Sottsass, Aldo Rossi, Achille Castiglioni and Alessandro Mendini, among others. "I worked as a mediator between the most interesting expression of international creativity that I can achieve and, on the other hand, the public's imagination," says Alberto Alessi whose other collaborators include Philippe Starck, David Chipperfield and the late Virgil Abloh.