Departures India Spring 2020

40 DEPARTURES STYLE

40 DEPARTURES STYLE INSIDE STORY Left: the dining-room chairs are covered in Le Manach fabric, and the sofa in Dedar’s Trama Paglia; bottom: the guest bedroom was painted in a custom colour by Atelier Camuset; the headboard was made by Tapissier Seigneur and upholstered in a Thorp of London fabric table, a smattering of Georges Jouve ceramics, a pair of Garouste & Bonetti armchairs, traditional African sculptures and a Charlotte Perriand dining table at which the kids eat their breakfast. “We wanted a very Parisian apartment in the same spirit as Monsieur Saint Laurent or Jacques Doucet,” he explains. “Not excessively modern, but rather with an intellectual atmosphere.” The nearly 840sq m space certainly has an august past. It consists of what used to be two separate units, one of which previously belonged to an auctioneer. The Cabinet Alberto Pinto joined the two flats together and completely reworked the layout. Part of what was the former master bedroom is now a study, the former kitchen has become a dining room, and there is one immense sitting room in place of two smaller ones. “We love large spaces,” says Pinto. “We don’t have a problem with things being oversized.” Sipping coffee while sitting on one of the sofas, she reminisces about her late brother, whose clients included financier Michel David-Weill and the royal families of Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. One thing she strives to maintain at the 60-person firm is her brother’s devotion to craftsmanship. “It’s our DNA, and we don’t want to lose it,” she says. The shimmering straw-marquetry walls of the sitting room are a perfect example, as are the apartment’s custom rugs that each took up to two years to fabricate. The decorating process of the Paris apartment was fairly organic. Some items were bought with a definite notion of where they would be placed, like the Jean Hélion painting in the living room and the two Art Nouveau armchairs in the family room. Others were acquired simply because they caught Pinto’s eye. A case in point is the pair

of Eiffel Tower-shaped sculptures that ended up being used as plant stands in the entrance hall. “We don’t know where everything is going to go at the beginning, but things find their place as if by magic,” marvels Pinto. There was, however, a certain method to creating the mix. The art collection focuses mainly on emblematic figures of the post-World War II era, and there was an insistence on integrating works in different media. “That makes things more complex and visually interesting,” notes Pietro Scaglione, the interior designer who oversaw the project. At times, certain elements of the decor were directly inspired by the art. The animal prints in the living room, for instance, are an obvious nod to the collection of African sculpture. At others, the goal was to create a deliberate dissonance. Pinto is keen to point out that not everything has to be of great value. The two sconces on either side of the Picasso painting above the fireplace were bought for a song at a Paris flea market. “They were lying on the ground and looked like nothing until they were regilded,” notes Scaglione. The Charlotte Perriand bench, meanwhile, was initially earmarked for the client’s villa in Ibiza. “I told him his gardener there wouldn’t The TV-room sofa was upholstered by Tapissier Seigneur in Andro fabric by Zimmer + Rohde understand its value and would chop it up for firewood,” he says. Not everything initially acquired for the Parisian flat made the cut either. Two truckloads of furniture and objects ended up being placed in storage. “They’ll be for our client’s next house,” says Pinto matter-​of-​factly. She recalls In the master bedroom, the vintage lacquered sliding doors are from Steinitz; the armchair by Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti was upholstered in a J Robert Scott fabric; the rug is from Alfombras Peña in Madrid the first dinner party her client held once the installation was complete. “All the guests said, ‘It’s incredible. Everything looks like it’s been here forever,’ ” she recalls. “For me, that was quite a compliment. Our goal is always to create homes that feel anything but brand-new.” 41 DEPARTURES