Tamu McPherson's turn-of-the-century Milan apartment is as bright and buzzy as her personal style, seamlessly balancing Milanese elegance with the colours of the Caribbean and a knowing Manhattanite edge. McPherson, best known as an effervescent presence on the fashion circuit through her content brand All the Pretty Birds, moved into the home with her husband Galileo and their son Piero in 2017. ‘I feel really blessed to live here,’ she says, giving me a tour of the U-shaped apartment and showing how it cleverly connects bedrooms on one side and living spaces along the other.
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Though original architectural features are everywhere, it’s McPherson’s decorative stamp that makes the home truly unique. ‘There’s a real mix of colours,’ she says. A soft, Prada-like green in the shade ‘Pigeon’ from Farrow & Ball is the home’s omnipresent hue on the walls, and a real mix and match of furniture gives the space an eccentric charm.
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‘Our coffee-table situation is a puzzle of different shapes,’ she continues. Other original pieces of note include a bookshelf that hides an internal doorway. ‘Of course I love homes that have everything matching and so well thought out, but we can’t all be like that,’ McPherson says of her eclectic style. ‘The décor reflects my sense of mixing textures and shapes.’
McPherson has lived in Milan for 20 years, having moved from New York, where she grew up from the age of six years old. Born in Jamaica, McPherson was raised by her grandparents in the United States. ‘My maternal grandparents were a part of the Windrush generation who settled in England, so my mum didn’t live with her family when she was a young girl, and the same thing happened with me.’ How have these factors affected how she’s built her own family home? ‘It means that we don’t always have the same concept of home as other families. We adapt well to where we have to be, whether that’s been by choice or necessity,’ she adds.
Adapting to the slower and gentler Milanese way of life was a change of pace from America’s convenience culture. ‘I moved here in 2005, and walked to the market every Monday to shop for fish, vegetables and flowers. Lots of shops and businesses were closing for lunch,’ she says, laughing in amazement. ‘But I really fell in love with the charm of living in Milan. It was February and it felt like spring already, with people enjoying aperitivo hour outside. In Italy, it feels like everyone has access to la bella vita.’
McPherson is quick to credit the influence of interior designer and antiques dealer Raimondo Garau on the home, mainly in the line of gentle encouragement rather than all-out advice, which has helped her own taste develop over time. Just as her confidence has grown, so too has her collection of decorative pieces, which includes gifts from friends she’s made in the fashion industry, such as the cheekily phallic-shaped ceramic Ettore Sottsass ‘Shiva’ vase that sits on a baroque dresser. ‘A gift from the fashion goddess Michelle Elie, who gave it to me as a thank you after her son stayed with us during his internship in Milan,’ she recalls with a giggle. ‘It was at a time when it was a very rare piece. When Jenna Lyons spotted it in a photograph, she messaged to ask me where I’d got it.’
Having made a career out of giving her audience fashion inspiration, McPherson has some advice for anyone growing into their sense of interiors style. ‘The number-one rule is to take your time,’ she says. ‘Start with one piece that speaks to you, and that might just be a mattress on the floor, but with a tapestry hanging on the wall or a few chairs that you’ve always wanted. I think decorating all at once can limit you.’
She says her advice is ultimately about understanding how you live in your home. ‘Notice where you spend most of your time and dress that room up first,’ she says. ‘Also, some of the most beautiful places I’ve ever stayed in have reminded me that rooms don’t have to have a full set. It doesn’t have to be the bed with the side tables to match. You need to have patience and a willingness to just try.’
McPherson says she often retreats to her favourite spot in the apartment: you’ll often find her perched upon a vibrant-fuchsia sofa, sipping tea and watching K-dramas to unwind. ‘That sofa is where I sat every day throughout the pandemic,’ she says, calling it the most sentimental piece in the apartment for its anchoring feel as a place of comfort and calm. It also happens to best define the home as a whole: a bright shock of colour that is as cosy as it is stylish. ‘It has just come back in, because it had started to sink where I have been sitting, so we had to have it completely redone and reupholstered. I’ve had it for 18 years, so it’s very special to me.’
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