Alessandra Branca’s New Collection is a Vibrant Trip Around the World

Designer Alessandra Branca is an enthusiastic global traveler who often connects with a fascinating crowd of creatives along the way. Many of the artisans are working to preserve their cultural heritage through craft and art, and she’s teamed with them to produce her exuberant new line, Casa Branca. Colorful and patterned, the collection is filled with tableware, pillows, lampshades, fabrics, wallpapers, and linens, each bearing an artisan’s touch.

The designer first conceived Casa Branca as a way to incorporate custom, artisan-made furnishings into her design projects. Born in Rome, Branca creates layered interiors that are rooted in European classicism, with a mix of French and Italian antiques, modern furnishings, and European and contemporary art. Revered by those who love design, she’s known for her fresh use of color, often taking a page from the past with vibrant Pompeiian red and mellow ocher hues of her native country. A master of the design mix, she incorporates many different styles, patterns, and colors in projects around the globe, which she oversees from of offices in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.

Included in the Casa Branca collection are crystal tumblers hand-blown, cut, and painted at the legendary Theresienthal workshops of Bavaria; white bisque artichoke lamps and tulip candelabra sculpted by ceramicists at the famed Paris studio of Jean Roger; embroidered linens masterfully stitched by Rwandan women; marbled desk accessories and boxes from India; and wireless al fresco table lamps painted with bamboo detailing by American artist Margot Larkin. Also look for porcelain dinnerware, along with a collection of vintage rattan and bamboo furniture upholstered in Casa Branca woven and printed fabrics inspired by her travels.

Her interiors have been featured in Architectural Digest, Town & Country, The New York Times, Veranda, and Elle Decor. Her master bedroom design for Kips Bay Decorator Show House Palm Beach in January was awash in blue-and- white Portuguese-inspired fabrics that are now included in her Casa Branca line, along with wallpaper from her collaboration with de Gournay. Branca is currently at work on her second book.