‘Fresco. Palazzo. For Sale. Go’

“Doesn’t everybody want a room with a fresco?” exclaims George Gottl. The American design veteran, who has held top creative roles at Nike and masterminded boutiques for Sephora, is talking excitedly about his recent hunt for an Italian retreat. 

It was the search terms “Fresco. Historic. For Sale. Go” that led him and his husband, Dutch filmmaker Anton van der Linden, to Lake Como and a palazzo apartment in the ancient Roman enclave of Laglio. But while the property was historic, dating back to the 14th century, it drew a blank on the fresco prerequisite. 

“It did have a beautiful umbrella vault ceiling, though, so I thought, ‘OK, we’ll fake the fresco,’” smiles Gottl, dressed in a linen blazer with a patterned silk cravat. “I had a whole plan to copy an amazing one in the palace owned by the Etro family in Puglia.” But when he hired Renova to take on the renovation, fresco specialist Patricia Gili made a happy discovery. “She scraped the ceiling with a teaspoon and sure enough, the colour popped out,” he says. “I mean, I practically had an orgasm.” 

Gottl traces his hankering for historic details back to his upbringing in California, “where I think the oldest building was from 1972”, he laughs. He grew up in an identikit suburban tract home – “very Stepford” – in Orange County. His mother is Costa Rican with Italian heritage, “raised super-Catholic”; his father was German and fled from Munich to the US during the second world war. “I wanted to be an actor,” says Gottl of his childhood ambitions. “But my mom refused; she said it would make me gay… ha ha.” 

Instead he studied at Parsons School of Design in New York. His early career flip-flopped from fashion, working for surf and skate brand Jimmy’z in LA, to interiors, running his own store, Relic – and back again. He made his name as creative director of apparel at Nike (“I am famous for my ‘butt logo short’”), then at the Bologna-based luggage and accessories brand Mandarina Duck. In 2003, he moved to Amsterdam and started his own business: Uxus, a design consultancy focused on in-store environments. Clients ranged from Sephora and Bottega Veneta to McDonald’s. In 2013, Uxus became part of FutureBrand, a global strategy and design company that is now part of IPG [Interpublic Group, an advertising and marketing agency with some 51,000 employees]. Omnicon announced its plans to acquire IPG last December and expects to close the deal later this month.

It was a health scare in 2018 that forced Gottl to rethink his work-life balance. “I had a heart attack right in the middle of the office,” he explains. He stepped down as CEO (his title at FutureBrand is now chief creative officer of spatial design) to “focus on what I love, which is the creative part”, he says of the shift that has brought him to Laglio.

My interiors are very fashion-based – they give an impression

Here, at Como, he and van der Linden aim to spend at least 10 days each month. The Italian hotspot is perhaps best known for its ritzy residents, chiefly another George: Clooney, who reportedly owns Villa Oleandra. But there’s another, gentler side to village life, says Gottl, who highlights the local campanilismo and convivial community get-togethers.

Inside the house, Gottl’s work experience has informed the entire approach to the renovation. “My interiors are very fashion-based and so is everything I’ve done at Uxus,” he says. “These are styled interiors. These are not historically accurate interiors. They give an impression.” 

The one-time noble property, nestled into the hillside so that the run-off rainfall would flow under the house to keep the cellar cool, is attached to a grand neighbouring villa and today split into four separate apartments. “It was such a granny home when we first saw it,” says van der Linden. “It had been owned by two very old people and abandoned,” adds Gottl, “but as things started progressing it just became more beautiful.” 

The fresco on the groin-vaulted living-room ceiling turned out to be a subtly cloud-strewn sky blue. “I thought, ‘Oh, the worst colour ever,’” eye-rolls Gottl. “We kept scraping and scraping, hoping for a figure somewhere, or a motif, but actually, in the end, I love how it feels antique-y yet modern.” The walls and floors in the house have been kept neutral, with a creamy sfumato finish and similarly hued ceramic tiles providing a blank canvas for predominantly antique furnishings and flourishes – the majority sourced from Mario Rossi, owner of Antiquario Andermarck. 

“He’s this 85-year-old Italian guy with tons of energy and 15 giant aeroplane hangars just full of stuff,” says Gottl. “He has Bernini sculptures and Chagall paintings, as well as brocante.” He points out a carved wooden headboard in the guest bedroom and a 15th-century rectory table in the hallway, both from Andermarck. In the living room, a pair of 19th-century renaissance revival chairs sit opposite a hefty, rustic coffee table (one of numerous finds from Amsterdam interiors brand Raw Materials, which also sells Anglo-Indian antiques). There’s a gilt-framed rococo mirror above the fireplace, while a large statue of St John, theatrically lit by overhead Railspot lighting (a tool borrowed from Gottl’s store-design kit), dominates the scene. 

“Christian iconography is in my DNA; I’m not particularly religious, but I love the ceremony,” says Gottl. “St John was apparently Jesus’s favourite apostle, and he’s always kind of slightly effeminate, so it’s maybe appropriate for a gay couple.” 

Gottl met van der Linden 11 years ago – “on Grindr”. Van der Linden, the co-founder of the production company Explorers of the Unfound, pulls a face; “it’s a ‘digital fairytale’,” he says. Their primary base in Amsterdam is “another fascinating building”, an 18th-century sugar warehouse, “on one of the most beautiful canals in the city”, says Gottl. It’s also home to his art collection, which includes works by Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Dutch artist Marjolijn Mandersloot and “tons of Chapman Brothers”. A piece by the British duo, in the shape of an African-style shield but bearing the McDonald’s logo, was one of Gottl’s “big, ‘I made it’” buys. “Some guys have a midlife crisis and buy Porsches,” he says. “I buy Chapman shields.” 

In Laglio, there are further works by the Chapmans: a trio of small drawings are hung in the hallway. In the main bedroom, meanwhile, a large renaissance-esque painting shows an Italian-style garden – “I bought it at an auction many years ago in Portland for 200 bucks.” A photograph atop a chest of drawers depicts Gottl’s Genovese grandfather, Luigi Tasara. The curation is more eclectic, as befits the more easy-going mood.

They uncovered another frescoed wall in the bedroom. Further restorative efforts include the wood-panelled ceilings, crafted anew in traditional style, and plasterwork by local expert Marcello Sorrentino (who is also part of the Renova team), which is “very typical of a very grand palazzo”, says Gottl. “I thought, ‘Well, let’s make it grand.’”

The spacious front garden is inspired by the classical geometry of the Villa Medici gardens in Florence, complete with an antique fountain and a vine-covered pergola. Yet at the same time, it’s an “insta-house”, admits Gottl of his somewhat quick-turnaround scheme, created with moodboards and executed with prop-like panache. The 1960s doors that were there when they bought it, for example, remain, just with a dash of “fake palazzo”. And the kitchen, designed by Gottl and crafted by Dutch outfit Eginstill, is all-out contemporary cool. 

The new home has also precipitated a broader aesthetic shift. Sartorially, “I have a more classic approach now”, he says of his dapper dottore attire, complete with loafers and pocket square. “I used to be Mr Rick Owens, head to toe black, weird drop-crotch Japanese pants, but I feel like I’ve outgrown it. I mean, I’m 62. Plus, dressing like this is really fun.” 

The real change though is in Gottl’s outlook. “In the end, does anyone care that I created the butt logo short,” he asks. “It’s the memories you make with people that matter, and that’s what Italy teaches me.”