House tour: a luxe and fashion forward apartment in the heart of Milan

If it is the ‘essence’ of a home’s owner that an architect is seeking to realise, then there’s an unfair advantage at play when said architect has already designed the bottle of said owner’s debut perfume. Pierfrancesco Cravel is the designer behind the sexy black vessel containing Profumo by Daad Dantone, released by the Milan fashion store’s founder, Giorgio Dantone, in 2015. He is also behind a couple of the fashion stores themselves, including one in its planning phase in Shanghai. Cravel and Dantone had met in Daad’s original store on Via Santo Spirito, its small inscription on the door usually upstaged by neighbours Balenciaga, Prada, Gucci, Valentino and Lanvin.

Dantone is a sophisticated buyer, attentive to the constant evolution of fashion, and he’s transformed his family tailor business into an innovative concept store that stocks the likes of Rick Owens. Aesthetically it is a combination of avant garde, Gothic romance and Italian sexy, and the same could be said for Dantone’s off-the-charts luxury apartment.

In the living area, lounge chair by Otto Schultz; Origami coffee table by Gunjan Gupta; T22 modular storage system by Osvaldo Borsani with decorative element by Arnaldo Pomodoro for Tecno; Arredoluce Monumental chandelier (1964) by Gio Ponti.

“The essence of Dantone’s store is an even more exclusive luxury [than] the fluorescence of those other ‘luxury’ brands,” says Cravel. “Before meeting each other, we had already met, often frequenting the same rooms and places. We are very similar; very shy and just as hungry for beauty. We liked each other right away.” Cravel has his own extensive background in fashion — his resume includes Vogue Italia, Calvin Klein and Trussardi — but his design credits since he founded PFC Architects in 2001 mark a definite shift in focus, culminating in his award-winning collaboration with Alessi.

Dantone’s apartment is close to Milan’s centre, on the seventh floor of a new build that was originally part of a conversion project on an old railway hub. As often happens in Italy, the project was left in limbo, and the green area went unplanted so that the landscape around Dantone’s home has an ‘unfinished’ look entirely at odds with the refinement inside.

In the bedroom, ebony, rosewood, yellow onyx bed upholstered with ostrich leather by Pierfrancesco Cravel; marble and mirror- framed bedside tables by Maurizio Pecoraro; mirror by Ettore Sottsass for Samtambrogio and De Berti; 1950s Italian wall lamps.

“Giorgio bought the apartment when the building was still under construction, because from there you could see the spires of Milan Cathedral,” says Cravel. “The slightly East Berlin flavour of this area has inspired my project, which is entirely inward-looking and traces in its materials, finishes, details and refined forms the culture of some of the great architects.” He refers to, among others, Osvaldo Borsani, Gino Sarfatti, Max Ingrand and Gio Ponti, whose chandelier for Sorrento’s Parco dei Principi hotel resides in Dantone’s living room.

The collaboration expanded to involve Cravel’s former professor Andrea Branzi, whom the designer considers his “master”. The 80-year-old was let loose on the entrance room, which misses the memo of the home’s general style of greys and golds to great effect via a mural of the Roman fresco of Giardino di Livia. Branzi altered the print-on-canvas with his own freehand drawings of shrubs, colourful birds and fruit, so that it’s no longer site-specific to the Villa of Livia.

In the ensuite, Fammenti vanity sink in Portoro marble and brass and Profumo by Daad Dantone bottle by Pierfrancesco Cravel; Concave mirror by Max Ingrand for FontanaArte; tap from Gessi; Louis Poulsen Guldpendel pendant light by Vilhelm Lauritzen.

If the jaw has dropped upon entry, then it may not relax until exit, because this home makes no attempt at modesty. Gleaming like a rock star’s acoustic guitar is the flamed rosewood lamellae that’s unabashedly paired with ebony lamellae to create a sort of monochrome Mondrian boiserie along the corridor and around the kitchen. The slats are brass on the underside so that if you walk backwards towards the entrance only brass can be seen. “It’s designed to perfectly hide all the doors, including the guest bathroom,” explains Cravel. “Often the guests ask where the bathroom is and are told it is the first door on the right in the hallway, but no one has ever found it until Giorgio reveals the trick.” The five tones of grey plaster divided by brass profiles on the walls of the living room are more Mario Radice than Mondrian, recalling his 1930s frescoes in Giuseppe Terragni’s Casa del Fascio.

In the kitchen, ebony and rosewood dining chairs by Arne Homvand-Olsen for Onsild Møbelfabrik; island bench and rangehood in brass, and cabinets in Rosso Lepanto marble, all by Pierfrancesco Cravel; Louis Poulsen PH 4/3 pendant light by Poul Henningsen.

Dantone’s own history tells of an apprenticeship with his father, an esteemed tailor with an atelier frequented by the Milanese nobility. At 20, he opened his own shop to sell young prêt-à-porter talents including Giorgio Armani and Dolce & Gabbana at the start of their careers. He now has his own son with his wife, Monica, and — according to Cravel — the 18-year- old, Alessandro, “jostles from one girlfriend to another”, impatient to work for his father.

Cravel has already earned that honour. “I’ve never had this profound understanding with another customer before,” he says. “Drawing for Giorgio has pushed me to demand much more of myself, not to fear being understood. We are both visionaries: I’m curious about his world, he’s curious about mine.”

In the main bathroom, Emperador Dark marble and rosewood vanity and marble bath, brass- framed mirror and brass, marble and honey onyx towel rail, all by Pierfrancesco Cravel; tap from Gessi; Dalia sconces by Max Ingrand for FontanaArte.

Visit: pfcarchitects.com

Click Here: cheap pandora Rings