Photo courtesy of Fendi

Most of the world’s biggest fashion houses have a special store that offers more than the usual boutique. For Fendi, the Palazzo Fendi used to just be a retail and office space. Now, it’s been revamped into a grand five-storey retail, cultural, hospitality and entertainment complex a stone’s throw from the Spanish Steps and overlooking Via Condotti, the centre of fashion and shopping in Rome.

While the boutique offering women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, furs and accessories sprawls across the first two floors of the palazzo, the Palazzo Privé sits just above it and is a specially designed apartment for Fendi’s top customers, celebrities and friends. A Fendi boutique hotel and Rome’s first international restaurant Zuma occupies the highest floors and roof bar.

With luxurious daybeds and vintage details, the Palazzo Privé has the warmth of a home. But not just any home, the private space was designed by Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran, the duo behind Milan-based interior and design firm Dimore Studio, and features a highly curated mix of hi-design vintage furniture, collectible contemporary design and art pieces, as well as new designs from a project Salci and Moran conceived for a Fendi-commissioned project at Design Miami in 2014.

Upon riding the glass elevator from the boutique up to the apartment, guests will be greeted by a grand and spacious foyer lined with dove-coloured lacquered walls and two columns, bringing Roman architectural influences indoors. A glimpse of a few key pieces by Dimore Studio starts here from ones like the Conversation Pieces armchairs featuring Fendi’s Selleria leather created for Design Miami.
Further inside the apartment are the Divano 067, Progetto non Finito couches in the living room, the Grand Square, a large metal rod and glass top table in the dining room, and another piece presented at Design Miami, the shaved Fendi mink daybed in the changing room. Each piece of furniture is a stunning masterpiece and adds to the inimitability of Fendi’s Palazzo Privé.