Divine colors and revamped vintage finds are the style markers in this apartment – home to a next-gen member of an Italian fashion dynasty
LIVING AREA
The marble splashback with its ‘fire’ and ‘water’ labels is original to the apartment. The bar counter is new and was created by owner Lucilla after the wall was taken down.
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THE OWNER Italian designer Lucilla Bonaccorsi Beccaria, who works alongside her mother on their fashion – and now homeware – brand Luisa Beccaria.
THE PROPERTY A two-bed apartment in Brera, Milan. A small entrance hall opens to the kitchen/dining/living room, which leads to a TV den/spare room. There is also a main bedroom and a bathroom.
LIVING AREA
This is defined by two vintage sofas, both reupholstered in a green and aubergine velvet stripe.
Brera, the achingly cool neighbourhood in Milan where some of the most innovative new design is showcased during the annual Salone, is also home to Lucilla Bonaccorsi Beccaria. The eldest daughter of fashion maven Luisa Beccaria, she designs the bra nd’s fashion and homeware collections alongside her mother, as well as running trunk shows and the commercial side of the family brand, including foreign sales. ‘In short, I never back down when there is something to do,’ she laughs.
Her bijou city apartment ref lects her multilayered creativity and it’s a beguiling mix of Sicilian romance – courtesy of her father’s roots –combined with the Milanese industriousness that comes from her mother’s family. She moved here after a stint in New York and had always wanted to live in the area, thanks to its villagey feel. ‘We all know each other,’ she says. ‘Our f lagship store is in adelightful little street nearby. We were the first brand, in the 1980s, to choose to be in Brera – at the time it was a typical artists’ district, a sort of R ive Gauche. Even though we are a stone’s throw from the Duomo (Milan’s famous cathedral), the atmosphere is still very relaxed.’
When she found it, the apartment had its period features intact and only needed a general refresh. Using her natural f lair for colour and texture, she has transformed it, and in the process made the most of the space – such as in the kitchen, which was opened up and
