Christian Pellizzari Explains Transition From Fashion to Glass Design

MILAN — “I changed my life without wanting to. It happened in a very natural and very fast way,” Christian Pellizzari said of his crossover from fashion to design.

The Castelfranco Veneto-born fashion designer who was supported by Giorgio Armani in 2014 to show in his eponymous theater, discovered his flair for designing glass creations during the COVID-19 pandemic, while updating his own home. Over a short span of just four years, he’s become one of the most talked-about lighting designers, godmothered into the elite design network by Milan pillar Nina Yashar.

In January, Yashar herself climbed to a snowy hilltop in the Swiss Alps to pose with Pellizzari’s gigantic Frosted Mirror Syriacus, a serpent-like flora/fauna element aglow in the freshly fallen snow outside the Hotel Waldhaus. The stunning lighting fixtures became the centerpiece for the February edition of design fair Nomad Saint Moritz. This all after making a splash in 2024 at PAD London, Design Miami in Paris and Salon New York, as well as having his works exhibited in the prestigious Nilufar windows in Milan’s Via della Spiga during the Salone del Mobile. 

For Design Week, kicking off here Monday, he will unveil Rye Ergot at Nilufar with a series of Murano glass sculptures inspired by the rye plant — a mysterious symbol in folklore and mysticism, revered for its hallucinogenic properties and its historical association with visions and spiritual awakenings. These delicate glass pieces seem to levitate, conjuring dreamlike imagery that transport the viewer into a sensory realm, he explained, likening the concept to an acid trip. “I’ve never tried LSD,” he swore, but his latest work speaks to what he imagines it could be.

Pellizzari’s otherworldly objects were originally discovered by Nomad cofounder Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte who convinced him that he had collectible art potential after seeing one of his serpent-like creations. “I completely stopped doing fashion, because everything happened without wanting to, in the sense that I was doing a project for my house with glass… at Nomad, that’s where it all started. I showcased my first project and I sold it and I immediately started getting commissions,” he said nonchalantly. At Nomad Capri, one of the first post-COVID-19 events, he encountered Yashar who invited him to travel to Art D’Egypt in Cairo to interact with some of her upscale clients.

It was then that he decided to ditch fashion for good.

“I went to Cairo and I did two other big installations and also there we immediately started selling and from there I started to have a lot of requests for custom-made projects and so I found myself that at a certain point I was no longer fashionable but I worked with glass,” he said.

The other serendipitous moment happened when he met the master Venetian artisan, who today blows the glass for all of Pellizzari’s creations. Pellizzari arrives with the sketches and works on the shape and the colors, and he shapes the metal by hand and creates the designs and the composition. “I am really putting my hands on these projects.”

Pellizzari’s designs have one common fil-rouge. So far, he’s embraced an overarching Garden of Eden theme, temptation in paradise flora and fauna, based on his love for genetic variation and exotic flowers. As a boy growing up in the Veneto region, he said he’s always been “fascinated by glass.”

Back in 2014, Pellizzari was an emerging fashion designer pinpointed by Giorgio Armani to show in his eponymous theater that propelled talents including Andrea Pompilio and Stella Jean. And for almost a decade, he was known on the scene for his contemporary, sporty fashions that were eclectic but never over the top.

Before exerting his talents in design, he said he struggled like most independent brands to propel his fashion during the pandemic, keeping up with manufacturing and booking orders.

What he likes about design versus fashion is that it’s more manual.

“I have always liked to work with my hands, play with electricity, with light. It’s something I’ve done since I was a child.”

Pellizzari’s story, while impressive, wouldn’t be the first surprising tale of a fashion designer who has forayed into the world of design, starting from the Art Deco heyday when Paul Poiret had his Martine furniture atelier, followed by Pierre Cardin and later Rick Owens. Before his death, Virgil Abloh had created some key designs for the home, including utensils for Alessi and chairs for Cassina, and in a way, his pupil Samuel Ross, who studied graphic design, is picking up where Abloh left off. Ross started an industrial design studio, Samuel Ross & Associates (known simply as SRA), and continues to operate within the fields of interior installation, architecture, furniture design and even sound design.

This design season, at Nilufar’s Viale Lancetti space, Pellizzari’s work will be showcased within the second chapter of Yashar’s Amber Echoes, alongside the copper and brass sculptures of Israeli-born, New York City-based artist and designer Shlomo Harush. Of his collectible appeal that has resonated worldwide, Yashar explained that Pellizzari’s work is characterized by bold artisan craftsmanship.

“His artworks are incredibly successful because they bring a fresh and innovative aesthetic to the market — something truly unprecedented. Each piece carries a high level of craftsmanship… There is a refined yet bold design vision behind his work, one that embraces a touch of baroque beauty while celebrating artistry and sophistication,” Yashar told WWD, adding that the 43-year-old’s potential was visible from his early work in fashion, which he started professionally in 2010.

“His approach to design allowed him to fully unleash his artistic potential, refining his ability to translate vision into form. His background in fashion definitely sharpened his instinct for materiality, composition, inspiration and detail, all of which now play a crucial role in his sculptural creations,” she said.

Since leaving the fashion world behind, Pellizzari said the rewards have been both emotional and financial, driven by his Egyptian and Middle Eastern clientele. And with Yashar, he has projects on the horizon from New York to France. His whimsical lighting sculptures are also part of the Art Deco interior design of the newly opened Printemps in New York City on Wall Street. Like his art, his new professional identity has evolved in unexpected forms, he said.

“There are some people who identify me as a lighting designer, some who define me as a designer. Some identify me as an artist. I love the idea.”