Inside Wow!house 2025: A Celebration of the Female Creativity with Brigitta Spinocchia Freund

In conversation with Visualista, Brigitta Freund — of the creative studio Spinnocchia Freund — walks us through the Curator’s room she designed for this year's Wow!house in collaboration with Stark.

Photos by James McDonald

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Can you tell us about the concept behind your room at Wow!house 2025?

The room is built around a bold narrative: the female form — its power, beauty, and place in art and design. The spark came from two wildly different but equally compelling books: The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich, a 1940s classic, and Katie Hessel’s The Story of Art Without Men, a fierce and fresh take that spotlights the women too often left out of the story. Add to that Ninth Street Women — a vivid look into the lives of 20th-century female artists — and suddenly a clear vision started to take shape. The result is a space that feels personal, political, and packed with intention.

How did you translate that vision into the design?

This is a space of dualities — where the iconic meets the emerging, and the spirit of a working studio blends seamlessly with the feel of a gallery. You’ll find legendary designers like Gabriella Crespi, Maria Pergay, and Charlotte Perriand sitting alongside rising talents such as Simone Prouvé and Bianca Raffaelli.

There are also many pieces designed by our studio in collaboration with artists. For example, the ottoman was created in partnership with Luella Bartley. Formerly a designer of fashion jewellery, Luella now works primarily on canvas. We collaborated closely to bring her artistic voice into the three-dimensional world of interiors — and the result is something truly original.

There’s an incredible diversity of materials and techniques — how did you curate the selection?

All of the pieces were chosen to highlight the diversity of women's art. We intentionally embraced a range of disciplines. There’s woven artisanry from Simone Prouvé, representing the next generation of the Prouvé legacy. Kesawa Aboah's work, which uses her own hands and body to paint, adds a visceral and emotional layer. From embroidered poetry on the sofa by Louise Gray to hand-crafted art objects from foundations like Cockpit and the Sarabande Foundation (formerly Alexander McQueen’s initiative), every piece has a story.

What kind of atmosphere did you aim to create?

I imagined a working studio - a space alive with books, textiles, art, and thought. There’s a feeling of quiet intensity, of creativity in motion. Even the ceiling is a piece of art: Roxanda, the fashion designer, helped us design the ceiling mural, drawing inspiration from Le Corbusier and her own couture. It’s a detail many miss at first glance, but it completes the room’s sense of being fully immersed in a feminine vision.

We wanted visitors to feel as though they were stepping into a world of female poetry - of layered voices and thoughtful expression. That’s why we collaborated with artist Louise Gray, whose work explores language and verse, to create the sofa. Her presence brings a lyrical rhythm to the space. Completing the room is the ‘Tribute’ rug - a woven homage to women in the creative fields. Featuring their names, it stands as a collective gesture of recognition, respect, and inspiration.