The Decorative Emotion
In Giulio Masciocchi’s projects, exuberant ornament becomes the expression of Contemporaneity which, without a touch of irony, is opposed to triviality and homologation.
How were you trained?
I had the “calling” at my highschool in Como “Setificio”. Then a few years back in London in a textile design studio, and then, I got the urge to broaden my visions and experiences, I graduated with honors in Product design at the Istituto Marangoni in Milan.
Tell us about your early works.
A product line of ultralight sunglasses for the eyewear brand, Glassing, which turned fashion upside down: reflecting not the lens, but the eyeglass frame. And decorations of fabrics and plates for Versace, for which I also designed the Pop Medusa chair presented at the Fuorisalone 2019.
Iconic. The next work was…
In 2016, I founded G.Disegni, a creative atelier, based on the ideal of a workshop of applied arts: I felt the necessity to give more structure to my work, without losing my whimsical vision. We aim for luxury especially by designing textile decorations by hand or digitally that diverges from the already seen and approved.
Today you are also the Creative director of the Mexican brand Polrey Botique…
A niche brand that wants to renew itself and leaves room for creativity. Designing their furniture collections using fabrics with our designs is a formidable experience for my studio. It helped me focus on the fact that ornament is not old-fashioned nostalgia because the sense of decoration is in the human DNA; it is always present. For me, working on surface is also working on depth of things.
Your definition for “design”?
I once said: design is living. Arranging shirts in one’s closet, buying a car, picking a flower, changing jobs. Life is choice, design is choice. And it still matters.
-Architectural Digest 2019
