Studio Pepe, Two Ladies Take Over Decor

by Acelya Yonac

​We just ran into them at Elle Decor's exhibit ROOMS. Studio Pepe was asked to decorate one of the 6 installations using famous Italian textiles. The tonal blue contrasting with Fall's gorgeous orange, a Gio Ponti signature chair dressed in velvet, Christian Fischbacher's textiles on the walls and the upholstery, at the center an iconic table by Angelo Mangiarotti. The room had character, and so do they. Studio Pepe, founded in Milan in 2006, always had a visionary and multidisciplinary approach to interior design, and their forte is definitely the emotional value of their work, a trait that attracts many international magazines.

​Two girls, one studio. Pepe means pepper, the two girls don't lack in flavor and lately they are also getting their hands on product design.

Who?

Arianna Lelli Mami
​Arianna graduated from the Politecnico di Milano in Interior Design. She has always be fascinated by the ways people live and inhabit space, she looks at design from a viewpoint that is free from rigid schemes. Passionate about art, she collects objets trouvés.

Chiara de Pinto
​Following an accademic training in fine arts, Chiara received her degree in Industrial Design at Politecnico di Milano. In 1996 she started collaborating as an interior stylist and journalist for numerous Italian and international magazines. Due to her artistic path, she always had a strong interest in materials, shapes, and colors.

Quick Interior Decorator Profile
​
​Your nationality?

Chiara de Pinto: Italian
​Arianna Lelli Mami: Italian

CDP: Pale pink and dark red.
​ALM: Black which is actually not a color or rather it is an archetype. My favorite color changes every month!

CDP: Everything from Piero Fornasetti.

The Latest Project

Ossimori
​This is a product design collection of one of a kind pieces from a study on material: as fragile as chalk and hard as marble. The union and contraposition of two different yet complementary elements. Materials that lead to the exploration of the relationship between rediscovery and object.

​​​Objects focusing on white and its many shades: white as in archeological finds; white like the metaphor of a lost dimension and associated with the symbolic.

​Votive objects, sonorous objects, visual objects, and tactile objects. A mirrored object is the very first Oxymoron, because mirrors represent the paramount form of identification while withholding the imaginary nature of the ego.

Who is your favorite designer, and why?

ALM: Gio Ponti I would say, because his genius spread from publisging and graphic to interior design and architecture. A real concept for living.
​

What/who influences you and inspires your work?

CDP: I’m personally influenced by the aestethic of the 20s-40s most examples of architecture and design are for me still very contemporary and new.
​ALM: I’m into the Italian aestetic of the 50s, not dolce vita but the urban aestetic: in movies like La notte by Antonioni you see an amazing Milan, very elegant a little bit Mad Man but in Gio Ponti Style.

Home Profile

​​Where do you live and in what sort of building?

​​CDP: I live in a two floor house from the 50s with a little garden where I like to spend the day off.
​​ALM: I live in an apartment from the 30s with amazing original old fashioned floors.
​

​​How would you describe your personal interior style?
​
​CDP: An eclectic style in which people we love can feel confortable, where objects have a story to tell.
​ALM: I collect old pictures and I love doing little installations with them.

Studio Pepe's Favorite Addresses in Milan

Shop:
Raimondo Garau
Via Varese 20, Milan

Beauty:
Violette
Via Lazzaretto 3, Milan

Restaurant:
Anche*
Via Pastrengo 11, Milan

Architecture:
​Bagni Cobianchi
​Piazza Oberdan, Milan

​About the author Acelya Yonac is the Editor of Artemest and a freelance journalist, digital consultant, and luxury specialist.