Milan – Design: wallpapers and fabrics The Arjumand Collection.
The dolls house. Once upon a time there was a little girl called Idarica Gazzoni who liked to draw houses down to the last detail, complete with floor plans and furniture. Today, Idarica presented her collection of wallpapers and fabrics called Arjumand inspired by the Indian-Muslim Empress of the Mughal Dynasty in a specially designed dolls house at the Studio Giangaleazzo Visconti in Milan. Like Arjumand, who had fourteen children, Idarica created fourteen papier peints with the fifteenth, the most beautiful, named after the Indian beauty herself.
The computer. Idarica, at work in front of her computer. Idarica, who is better known as a pientre decorateur, has recently branched out into wallpaper and fabric designs. She started using a computer in the year 2000 and it was when she “discovered” Photo Shop that she started “playing around” with abstract designs and proportions “I have so much fun visualizing and transforming a design; for example when I take a Suzani, which represent how the Asians saw nature in a simplified mode, I reinvent the design, making it bigger or smaller.” she explains.
A detail. Idarica’s color palette; a close up of a wallpaper design called Turkish Moon being created.
A detail. The wallpaper, Turkish Moon from the Arjumand Collection designed by Idarica Gazzoni is papered on the walls of ground floor of a dolls house.
The dinning room. The dinning room in the dolls house is papered with the Pomegranate design from the Arjumand Collection.
photograph courtesy Idarica GazzoniA detail. A detail of the Pomegranate wallpaper design “It’s interesting to re-interpret decorative elements from other cultures, because they are expressions of thought and knowledge between peoples.”
The sitting room. The sitting room of the dolls house is papered with the most beautiful design of all, called Arjumand, after the Empress herself. The tall skirting is decorated with flowers from the Lilium family.
Contessanally tip: Click on any photograph to enlarge it.
photograph courtesy Idarica Gazzoni
A detail of a frescoed room. Idarica, is better known as a pientre decoratrice. Here is a detail of a room that Idarica painted. The room is homage to Italian painter, Antonio Basoli and it is a tribute to Napoleon’s visit to Italy, the room is appropriately called Stanza Tenda, the tent room. “When I was a child my mother took me all over Italy and I saw the frescoes, I was fascinated and inspired by them. At twenty I went to the Van Der Kelen School for decorative painting in Brussels where I learnt all the decorative painting techniques.” She concludes.