She was born near Florence in 1922, but moved to Milan in 1944 to study architecture at the Politecnico Institute where she became influenced by the work of Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. In the 1950s, she debuted the “Small Lune Collection” of crescent-shaped forms in steel and in the 1960s she began collaborating with Maison Dior designing home accessories and furniture. In 1968, a showcase of great Italian design hosted in Dallas, Texas brought the prototype for her famed Plurmi series to light. Some of her most successful designs from the series were the Z desk (1974) and the bronze Ellisse table (1974) in which she collaborated with her daughter Elisabetta continuing to design together through the early 1980s. Many pieces from the series are multifunctional and can be rearranged with retractable elements.

At the peak of her fame, Crespi moved to India where she spent nearly 20 years in spiritual retreat returning to Milan in the early 2000s. Some of her later collaborations included a limited reissue of vintage jewelry designs for Stella McCartney in 2008. Throughout her career, she was adored by her celebrity clientele and elite social circle including Audrey Hepburn, Hubert de Givenchy, Gunter Sachs, Gianni Versace, Princess Marina of Savoy, Queen Paola of Belgium, and the royal families from Persia and Qatar. In 2012, the Archivio Gabriella Crespi was established to promote and preserve the designer’s work and is today directed her daughter.