In the drawing room of fashion designer Andrew Gn’s Paris apartment, silk-covered Louis XV gilt armchairs surround a Régence table, and a pair of Louis XV armchairs upholstered in a silk brocade flanks a marble mantel from a château in Brittany; the Chinese porcelains are from the Transitional and Khang Hy periods, and the chandelier is 18th-century Swedish.
By Nancy Hass, Elle Decor
Fashion designer Andrew Gn’s richly layered apartment pays tribute to the past.
Considering the dizzying whirl through European history evoked by his Paris apartment, it’s hard to believe that clothing designer Andrew Gn was once a fool for modernism. But, until eight years ago, Gn, a virtuoso of intricate embroidery and luxurious fabrics, whose clients include international royals and many of the ladies who lunch in capitals throughout the world, decorated his home with pieces by early- and mid-20th-century masters. He lounged on a daybed by Josef Hoffmann; lamps by Serge Mouille and Jacques Adnet illuminated the history and design books he reads as inspiration for his 100-percent-made-in-France fashions. The fabrics were horsehair and satin, and the colors were neutral: black and white, brown and beige. “I was actually fairly minimal,” he says.
As the years passed, however, Gn, who began his career as an assistant to Emanuel Ungaro, found himself yearning for a warmer, more timeless environment. The pressure of producing so many collections a year made him hunger for permanence, he says...
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A French provincial walnut cabinet in the entrance hall with a collection of 17th- and 18th-century delft, Nevers, Lille, and Chinese porcelains.
In the bedroom’s sitting area, an antique Majorelle vase is filled with 19th-century Chinese Peking glass cherry blossoms, 18th-century Chinese embroidered-silk panels cover a cabinet, and antique Chinese and French Iznik-style plates line the wall; the ebonized chair and table are 19th-century French and English, respectively.