Some of us struggle to understand what goes where in a room, or to appreciate the difference between one shade of white and another. Others study hard to master the nuances of scale and proportion, the dynamics of pattern, the subtle differences, say, between Arts and Crafts and Mission style. But thanks to circumstance and sensibility, there are those for whom an eye for design seems preordained.
As a member of the family that has epitomized Italian alta moda for four generations, Gigliola Castellini Curiel grew up in a world where an awareness of color, texture, shape and line was a staple, as basic to living as bread and water. The granddaughter of Gigliola Curiel, who launched the House of Curiel, and the daughter of Raffaella Curiel, who solidified the fashion brand’s international renown, Gigliola is a force at C&C Milano, the home textiles firm founded by her paternal uncle, Emanuele Castellini. “Always being in contact with beauty certainly formed my way of imagining interiors as works of art,” explains Gigliola, whose apartment in Milan is expressively nonchalant.
Graced with a large terrace and plenty of natural light, the home is dressed in complementary styles, with the public spaces striking a low-key, contemporary note, while the private areas take on a more traditional profile. Pale walls and Carrara marble floors envelop the living room; wood floors and brighter hues pervade the bedrooms. Books and art fill the expansive living room, which is punctuated by a towering Coromandel screen, a wedding gift from Gigliola’s mother. In the primary bedroom, an unfussy panoply of drawings hangs above the bed, which once belonged to the grandparents of her husband, Massimo Winkler.
Family pieces are everywhere in the home, as are objects and furniture gleaned serendipitously from flea markets and bric-a-brac shops. Wildly disparate — Aubusson rugs, hand-painted ceramics plates by Ignazio Moncada, an 18th-century Tyrolean cabinet — but utterly companionable, the pieces gathered here achieve a cohesiveness that seems to have been generated as much by chance as by design.
“I have great curiosity,” shares Gigliola. “I love collecting, I love workmanship and I have always been astonished by discovering what the mind and hands of a human being can create.”
As for most people, the kitchen is the heart of Gigliola’s home, a fact she emphasized with red cabinetry and a red pendant light fixture from Kartell. Celebrating the importance of family, she framed and hung recipes written in her daughters’ hands when they were young. For all its tailored sophistication and urbane embrace, it is the simple yet meaningful touches such as these that underscore the essence of what a home can and should be: a place that settles one securely in the world, pleasing the eye and comforting the soul.
Photography by Marco Bertolini.
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