In the world of fashion, Romeo Gilly is considered to be an unsurpassed master of graphic abstractions. The silhouette of any prêt-a-porte model created by him is extremely graphic, vaguely reminiscent, gives some elusive stylistic reference, but it is absolutely abstract. And beautiful. The stability of this phenomenal new-look, according to the maestro, is due to the situation that surrounds him in his own house. In the creation of which, I must say, he himself took a considerable part His Milan apartment is quite simple and eclectic. There are almost no architectural delights, the layout of the apartment is left almost in its original form. The walls are painted in a light color, the antique parquet is polished with a herringbone to shine and covered with a thick layer of transparent varnish, like cedar resin. There is no similar chair or chair in the house. "This is all in order to give my imagination a space," notes Gilley, "because in every chair I feel new and dream about different things." There are also two huge globes in the office. And, of course, the mass of books - mainly on the history of fashion and travel. Travel books are a favorite genre of Romeo Gilly. We can say that they made him a "cosmopolitan of fashion". He was the first to understand that ethnic eclecticism has a future. So, his latest fashionable collection autumn-winter-2003/2004, shown in Paris, declared the absence of any symmetry combined with a great influence of Chinese style, with an admixture of Japan, unexpected curtsies towards Scotland and even ... medieval Europe. Suddenly? Yes. But super-elegant and tasteful. Almost the same can be described and the situation in the house of Romeo Gilly: unexpectedly, but very harmoniously. The most indicative in this regard is the living room. Its central wall is occupied by a huge fresco, stylized as an Egyptian one, on which three dogs fight. Next to the table in the Moroccan style with beautiful oriental candlesticks. Everywhere there are a lot of leather ottomans, sewn by hand and decorated with various applications. The axial center of the living room, and, perhaps, of the whole house, is a huge fireplace-grill - an element made to order and truly exclusive. He as if sets the starting point of the coordinate system around which all objects in the house are located. Arguing with originality can only be Balinese surfboards, hand-painted with ethnic ornament and placed in a row along one of the walls, is absolutely decorative, but so powerful in energy that it seems that you can look at these boards more closely and you can hear the noise ocean surf. This is surprising, but next to these "antiquities", Gilley boldly puts modern pieces of furniture with a trendy striped pattern and practically a high-tech profile - and it looks! Gilly himself calls this new aesthetics "multiculturalism." A single word must be said about the unusual light in this house. Most of the existing fixtures are of Chinese origin, but there is also a whole group of floor lamps worthy of the brush of Salvador Dali — iron cones on thin legs, with bowed heads. At dusk it seems that they melt. (Romeo especially loves them.) At first glance, all the points of light in the house are scattered chaotically, but this is not so. At night, all together, in an unexpected way, they create a special architectonics of space, not at all similar to the day, but even more inviting to travel, attracting to adventures, creating unique, "cosmopolitan" comfort. What is very important, because the night, as you know, is the time of birth of masterpieces, which then, admiring, we will wear during the day.
Passing the gallery 
