Laetitia de Allegri

Laetitia de Allegri designs elegant everyday objects inspired by her Swiss roots.

London-based Laetitia de Allegri credits her roots in Switzerland for informing her design sensibility, which she later honed at ECAL, the prestigious art and design university in Lausanne. “It’s a town with a lake and an amazing view to the mountains,” she says. “Living in a city where you can see nature makes you think of the value of life.” Stints working for Alexander Taylor and Barber & Osgerby helped push her practice, and now de Allegri splits her studio time between Hackney, where she gains daily inspiration from a community of old-school craftspeople using glass, ceramic, cast iron, and wood. For material trials and “messy” work, she seeks out Matteo Fogale, with whom she collaborated on the –ISH collection, a series of sleek everyday objects like a mirror made from recycled and reclaimed post-industrial waste material that resembles stone. Another standout piece uses a classic material to contemporary effect by glazing a ceramic magazine holder in saturated hues.