3 min readDuring last winter’s Design Miami fair, attendees were welcomed into “Fonderia Fendi,” a brilliantly yellow room showcasing the work of artist and designer Conie Vallese. Vallese had been handpicked by Fendi for the project, a celebration of the brand’s 100th anniversary. She worked with five different Italian ateliers to build the pieces, which included a vase, a room divider, a carpet, ceramic cubes, and a chair, each combining sleek design with soft touches, like floral flourishes. “It felt less like assembling objects and more like composing a shared language across materials,” Vallese says. “In the end, the installation became a celebration of togetherness as the core and force of the project. It felt like a true meeting point between my own sensibility and Fendi’s heritage.”
Top, trousers, earrings, Bottega Veneta.
Top, Schiaparelli.
Vallese grew up in Argentina, the daughter of a doctor and an interior designer. Incorporating beauty into daily life was always important to her, but she began pursuing art more seriously after she moved to New York City in her 20s. She was inspired by her beloved grandmother, a painter, and began painting, drawing, and creating decorative objects in materials like bronze, glass, textiles, and ceramics. Now living in Italy and New York, Vallese has shown her work at Milan Design Week, the prestigious design residency Numeroventi, and the art fair Collectible New York. She’s working on a collection of tiles for the Copenhagen design brand Blēo and is making vases for the Venetian blown-glass lighting company Barovier&Toso.
Top, jeans, Khaite. Gloves, Wing & Weft.
Coat, top, skirt, shoes, Prada.
The wide scope of Vallese’s vision has made it possible for her to work with brands like By Malene Birger on a series of glass vases, create a collection of embellished cutlery with jeweler Orit Elhanati, and design ribbon-adorned bronze furniture pieces with Rym Beydoun of the fashion brand Super Yaya. Though she moves between mediums and partnerships, her work has a consistent vision. “I’m always interested in working from a place of continuity and also exploring new materials or approaches. Learning new ways to make work is what motivates me to continue the path of creating work, not reinventing myself for each, but allowing familiar elements of my practice to stretch,” she says.
Jacket, top, skirt, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello.
Dress, Loewe. Earrings, Chanel.
Flowers, particularly lilies, which she sees as “symbols of fragility and resilience,” are a theme for Vallese, but the prettiness of her art doesn’t distract from its depth. “Recurring motifs like floral forms, softness within structure, and a sense of domestic intimacy are very present in my practice,” she says. “Flowers have always been a quiet constant in my work, not just as visual beauty, but as emotional markers. I grew up surrounded by them, and over time they became a kind of language for me. I’m drawn to the way they hold contradictions so naturally.”
Pullover, skirt, earrings, pumps, Chanel.
Jacket, Givenchy by Sarah Burton. Earrings, Chanel.
In 2015, Vallese began working in front of the camera. She walked in one of Phoebe Philo’s last Céline shows and has since modeled for Bottega Veneta. “It was a bit spontaneous, and at first I didn’t really understand where it fit in my life or my work,” she says of her modeling jobs. “My first experience felt unfamiliar, because I’d never seen myself in that role before. Over time, some projects and collaborations felt very special to me, and I began to enjoy it. The work stopped being about posing or appearance and started to feel more like another form of expression.”
Dress, earrings, pumps, Chanel.
Lead image: Jacket, top, skirt, earrings, Khaite.
Hair by Erol Karadag for Oribe; makeup by Frank B at the Wall Group; manicure by Lolly Koon for Chanel; produced by Family Projects; location: Bronx Community College.
This story appears in the March 2026 issue of ELLE.