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Giberto Designs a Special Glassware Collection for Dior Maison. Inspired by the 1920s and ’30s, with an entirely unusual color palette.

Among the most brilliant personalities of a Venice as aristocratic and elegant as it is vibrant and forward-looking, Giberto Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga – Gibi to his friends – has transformed a deeply personal passion and challenge into a flourishing and, indeed, rewarding venture.

It was 2005 when, almost as a playful experiment, he added to his career as a manager and insurance broker the role of designer of glass objects, blown in Murano furnaces by master glassmakers and sold under his own brand. His production is essential, refined, and niche – yet it caught the attention of Dior, who commissioned this exceptional designer to create an exclusive line of objects for the Dior Maison store on New Bond Street, London, all, of course, produced in Murano.

“Please, don’t call me a designer or an artist; I’m an amateur,” Giberto insists, playing on the dual meaning of the word – lover and dilettante – “because I love beautiful things and enjoy recreating them.”

For Dior, Giberto designed three sets of glasses, two pitchers, a paperweight, and a large slate-and-glass ashtray: projects that perfectly express the timeless luxury of the French maison even in the homeware sector. “I drew inspiration from the 1920s and 1930s, and, despite the initial resistance of the old master who blew them, I proposed new pieces that evoke Venetian tradition, but with unusual colors: grey, pink, powder, and black – shades that, for me, represent an era.”

Giberto reinvents classicism drawing on diverse experiences: “I was born in Venice and had the fortune to grow up in a beautiful house, in a family with taste. My inspiration comes from there. And from travel.” In India, from where he sources the hard stones he frequently uses in his work; in Russia, which he loves for its combination of precious and simple materials. He looks to antique objects for the quality of their materials and attention to detail, while modern ones inspire him through their shapes.

Why does he love glass? “It’s a timeless material, and classic pieces are always relevant.”

Giberto also draws on great traditions in his most artistic projects: for years, for example, he has been creating lost-wax copies of a famous bronze bust of Augustus by Ferdinand Barbedienne. His latest undertaking was participating in the Architecture Biennale, where he exhibited, in the section organized with the Victoria & Albert Museum, a copy of Canova’s Paolina Borghese as Venus Victorious, created with the collaboration of Adam Lowe