A Home With a View
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Alessandro Maria Ferreri knows what he wants and how to achieve his dreams. After all, he has made a career out of advising fashion executives on how to strategize and reach their business goals.
The founder and chief executive officer of consultancy The Style Gate, Ferreri has more than two decades of experience in the luxury industry and has worked over the years with fashion conglomerate Aeffe Group, Jean Paul Gaultier, Etro and Staff International.
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Dapper and always perfectly dressed for the occasion, he’s attended numerous fashion shows around the world. He is an ambassador of Italy’s Camera della Moda’s Fashion Trust, a permanent lecturer and mentor of the London Royal College of Arts and of Milan’s Università Cattolica, and a senior patron of The Serpentine Gallery.
Ferreri personifies the tireless and curious globetrotter, traveling for work but also off the beaten track for pleasure, in locations such as Antartica and Burma or Cappadocia and Oman, in hot air balloons or on the Orient Express.
However, he is not a man without roots. Hailing from Turin, with an apartment in Milan, he now calls Rome his home as well.
“When I was young, I was a true xenophile, but in time I think one returns to the fold. I have rediscovered the European capitals, and Rome in particular,” Ferreri explains. “It’s an open-air museum and exemplifies the real Italian lifestyle. I was drawn to the intensity of the city and of its flavors. Traveling a lot, one begins to think it would be nice to have breakfast at home and not in a hotel.”
In his case, it’s breakfast with a view. And what a view he has from the expansive windows and terrace of his apartment — a wide-angle panorama extending from Casina Valadier and Villa Medici to the Trinità dei Monti church overlooking the Spanish Steps, the San Giacomo in Augusta church and the Tiber River.
The expansive windows frame the sites, which are one with the apartment, filled with light.
When scouting for the right place, this one in particular had an additional attraction: Ferreri was intrigued by the mix of people living in the building, a stately palazzo that dates back to 1702. A plaque stands in the entry hall as a reminder that this was the home of Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova.
“The residents in the building reflect Rome’s diversity,” Ferreri says.
The city, he continues, blends Catholic symbols, obviously the numerous churches among the most visible, with pagan elements from the Roman Empire or Latin mythology. “At the same time, Rome is home to Cinecittà and national television, as well as to the government, but also to Rationalist art and architecture, and to aristocracy.”
This diverse scenario is represented by the barons, politicians and cardinals living under the same roof in his building.
“It was love at first sight,” Ferreri says of the apartment, shown to him by a friend, a baroness who he can now call his neighbor. “I immediately got good vibes. I was looking for something that would not be too bourgeois and that would not feel Milanese.”
Anecdotally, he says with a chuckle that the very first thing he bought when he was looking at apartments in Rome was a string of terrace light bulbs to fit with his idea of easy outdoor entertainment. Sure enough, the terrace is a key element of the apartment, brimming with floral arrangements, the terracotta floor dotted with cozy armchairs and sofas — and the lights serve their purpose for those leisurely aperitifs under the Roman sky. “An apartment in Rome must have a terrace,” he contends.
Centrally located in Via del Corso, a key shopping street in Rome, Ferreri expects the area’s appeal to only increase due to the upcoming opening of the new Bulgari Hotel a few steps away, strategically placed in the square housing the mausoleum of Emperor Augustus and near the recently opened Six Senses luxury hotel. Works on the nearby Romeo Hotel, rumored to include cuisine by Alain Ducasse, are also underway. Luxury shopping street Via Condotti, brimming with stores for all the major fashion brands, is a few minutes walk away.
Spending more time in Rome than in the past has also helped expand Ferreri’s activities, increasing his commitment to designer Antonio Grimaldi, one of the main representatives of the city’s couture tradition.
He has also started to work with several embassies, promoting, for example, the craftsmanship of Lithuanian designers and artisans. In September, he contributed to bringing a group of Saudi Arabian designers to the White Milano trade show.
The apartment has allowed Ferreri to place personal memorabilia and objects from his trips around the world that he felt didn’t fit with the decor of his Milan address.
An embroidered Maison Margiela 2010 calendar in white linen with red details that Ferreri received as a Christmas present and that he cut up to turn into pillows are symmetrically propped on the gray sofas.
White and touches of red are a recurring color palette, the latter emphasized by a few Valentino coffee books in the brand’s iconic hue. The table is “dressed up” with a fine ceramic dinnerware set in both colors from Galateo & Friends’ “dejeuner sur l’herbe” collection with hand-crochet decorations recalling classic embroideries. A series of vases from Hamburg, Germany, that reproduce bright strawberries are joyful and playful.
More fashion books are neatly piled up around the house, from “Pradasphere” to “Tom Ford 002,” and photographic tomes on Chanel, Dior and Pucci.
In a corner are two of what Ferreri calls “totems” of Hermès boxes in the brand’s signature orange color, placed on the sleek wooden floorboards with geometric patterns. “My shopping at Hermès translates in these pyramids, a sort of pagan element,” he says with a chuckle.
Ferreri admits he is “fixated” with monogramming his initials throughout the apartment, on dishes, glasses, napkins, pillows, bed sheets and towels – the luxury household linens all from storied Florence-based brand Loretta Caponi that caters to royal families and celebrities from Sting to Madonna. “I think it may come from my [Piedmontese] Savoy origins [and their ubiquitous coat of arms],” he opines of the embroidered monograms.
Serigraphs from artist Mario Sironi hang above the bed, while photos of Ferreri from Settimio Benedusi, Giovanni Gastel and Mélonie Foster Hennessy are on display in the living room.
By nature very sociable, Ferreri says his home in Rome inspires him to entertain and to be more spontaneous. “It makes me feel that friends can just pass by and come up for a chat. The house is always ready to welcome someone.”
To this end, even when traveling around the world, Ferreri makes sure that drinks and wine are in the coolers and fresh flowers are always there.
Launch Gallery: A Look Inside Alessandro Maria Ferreri’s Gorgeous Rome Apartment
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