
Bringing Sexy Back
Meet Milan native Giampiero Tagliaferri, maker of seductive modern furniture and homes for the billionaire set.
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It’s hard to say the word “vibe” five times in an hour without sounding partly comatose, yet somehow coveted new designer Giampiero Tagiaferri manages it. Behind his beaded necklaces and shiny black curls, he is a riddle of high sophistication and hometown modesty.
Tagliaferri, 41, is attached to some of the hottest projects in the world right now and he’s a man with plenty to “vibe” about. It’s thanks to artists like him that Italy has remained for centuries at the pinnacle of interior design and architecture.
Deftly mixing modern interiors with historic design, his ventures are unexpected and emotionally complex. A riotous clash of colours and textures, his layered aesthetic mashes up eras and materials like he is designing the set of a film directed by Luca Guadagnino. But beyond his Prince Charming demeanour, Tagliaferri is bringing a sexiness back to architecture and design.
“I love the ’70s aesthetic because it’s very sensual,” says Tagliaferri. “Back then, design was very experimental and there was a certain freedom or a feeling of being liberated.”
His knack of walking a tightrope between opulence and restraint has won him an illustrious fan base consisting of well-heeled Americans and Europeans who divide their time between the world’s most lavish playgrounds. “My work always tends to embody a tension between the two aspects of a quite formal aesthetic and a much more affordable or approachable set of materials or objects.”

Humbly avoiding direct praise, Tagliaferri credits Milan for his stratospheric success, a city he says is embedded in his “DNA”. “Milan was bombed and so after the war it was completely rebuilt and I think that the modernism in Milan is what makes it so relevant today.”
But Milan isn’t the only mood he’s playing with. Tagliaferri, who was born in Bergamo just north of Italy’s design capital, admits he has been seduced by the sense of space and sun in his adopted home of California, where he has lived for the past nine years. Each month he travels to Milan to oversee his European endeavours but chooses to live in Silver Lake, a spot where he can walk between his home and his studio.
The former creative director for Oliver Peoples—who took the brand’s global footprint from eight to 41 stores in six years—is now involved in some eye-watering projects, from palazzos in Venice to the new build of pop stars’ home in the Nevada desert.
When we meet in on a sunny Venice day, he’s fresh from a site visit to oversee the re-fit of a 16th-century palazzo on the Grand Canal. He jumps off a wooden water taxi and lands on the side of the waterway dressed in a pale-blue linen suit. He shakes his black curls from his face like a breathtaking Medusa and gives a beaming white smile. “Allora.”

The Venice building is just one in a clutch of exclusive projects that have been keeping Tagliaferri busy since he started his practice in 2022. Thanks to the Belgian serial entrepreneur Adrien Dewulf, who now serves as a partner in the business, he has studios in Los Angeles and Milan. He can barely keep up with demand.
The opening of the Oliver Peoples Milan flagship was a high point. The interior pays homage to the residential high style of Milanese apartments in the 1950s. Elegant wooden joinery, marble floors, grey stone and pale-blue walls are carefully offset by art and objects that build a visual narrative that’s nostalgic yet familiar. It was here that the owners of Minotti first saw Tagliaferri’s work and recruited him to design his first collection—an interesting choice for a serious manufacturer long led by the rationalist Italian architect Rodolfo Dordoni.

Less than 12 months after the first meeting, Tagliaferri unveiled his debut collection, Supermoon, at Milan Design Week, where people from all over the world stood in lines to see the series, which includes a seating system, outdoor setting, bed, desk, coffee and side tables.
“With Minotti I wanted to design something that I felt was missing from their collection. Their collection is great, but it tends to be very serious. I wanted to create something that I could use in my own projects, something a little more playful, more rounded and more sensual.”

Minotti isn’t the only big Italian brand taking notice. His major new client Carolina Cucinelli—daughter of fashion designer Bruno Cucinelli—has also been drawn to his astute sensibility. She became friends with Tagliaferri after collaborating on an eyewear collection at Oliver Peoples. Now she’s tapped him to design the Los Angeles home she shares with her husband Alessio Piastrelli in Hollywood Hills as well as the Brunello Cucinelli offices and PR showroom in West Hollywood.
Extending his work for the Milanese restaurant group Sant Ambroeus, Tagliaferri’s use of fabric can be seen at their mountain cafe in Aspen. In a nod to mid-century Italian design, silk velvet upholstered Le Bambole chairs cosy up to two top tables while the floor is decked out with crazy pavers; the lustrous coffee bar plays with green marble and faux fur.

“I love the mix of vintage with modern,” says Tagliaferri. “I am not really into monochrome, and I am not a huge fan of patterns or prints, but I love fabric in general. I love the material aspect and how it can present a mix between the smooth and the rough. It can be plait-y, or fluffy, or have a low sheen. It brings in something that is a little bit magic.”

Perhaps it is this magic that has earned Tagliaferri so many fans after just two years in business. “Giampiero is a rock star,” says Tim Engelen, general manager of Australian interior design emporium dedece. “He’s a pirate. I was never a lover of fashion when it comes to furniture, but his collection is something new. It’s sexy and Minotti is brave.”
The new Prince Charming of design may be off to a fairytale start, but this magician is in firm command of the spells he is casting.
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