TO THE MAX
Photographs
Tre nt M c MinnTake the sexiest bits of the 1970s, several
glasses of Campari and soda, plus one
magnificent mullet, and you get a flavour of
Gergei Erdei’s aesthetic. This mood is very
much reflected in his Bloomsbury home. His
decorating mantra? “No rules ... I don’t care
if it’s not all designer. It’s about the overall
aesthetic,” he says.
Born in Budapest, Erdei moved to
London in 2015 to study at the London
College of Fashion. Then, while exhibiting
at Rome’s fashion week, he caught the
attention of a former tutor of Alessandro
Michele, Gucci’s creative director, which
led to an interview and a job. “I was obsessed
with Gucci and really wanted to work
there,” says Erdei, 29. During a year-long
stint at the label’s creative studios in Rome,
he worked as a ready-to-wear designer and
later as an embroidery designer, as well as on
VIP pieces for Jared Leto and Lana Del Rey’s
2018 Met Gala appearances.
Erdei returned to London and pondered
his next move — this time a solo venture.
“I was always thinking, should I be an archi-
tect or should I work in fashion? I chose
fashion because I felt it’s a bit more experi-
mental, but then I realised that interior
design, especially printed textile products,
can have all the drama and exuberance of
any kind of fashion item.”
So he decided to create his first homeware
line in 2020, a series of zodiac-print place-
mats inspired by 16th-century Italian frescoes
and Grand Tour print cushions. A year later
Erdei spotted this unfurnished one-bedroom
apartment in Bloomsbury and instantly fell in
love with its handsome Georgian bones and
Pompeiian red walls. He moved into the
small but perfectly formed flat last May and
spent the best part of a year decorating,
joking that the constraints of his Hungarian
fashion design degree — which adhered
closely to a minimal approach — was partly
why he embraced OTT maximalism with
such vigour. “It was like a protest,” he says.
His bedroom, which is a dark turquoise, is
influenced by the interior designer David
Hicks, and “how he layered geometric prints
in smaller spaces with dark walls to create a
boudoir feel”. All the linens are Erdei’s own
design, and the wardrobe is an open shelving
unit covered by three curtains with a French
Brasserie print designed by Erdei.
Another inspiration was Tony Duquette,
the Hollywood set designer and maximalist
icon whose fanciful creations included
everything from wire and plaster lizards to
XL shell- covered obelisks. “He created
crazy stage sets in the 1940s, 1950s andA bold use of paint, vintage furnishings and an
ingenious Ikea hack – the Bloomsbury flat of the
former Gucci designer Gergei Erdei may be small in
size but it’s big on impact, says Victoria Brzezinski
44 • The Sunday Times Style