Elvira Gavrilova’s Place of Power: Guided Tour of Her Lisbon Apartments

Do you think Elvira Gavrilova’s dressing room is larger than her home office? We were also interested to find it out, so we asked for a visit to a businesswoman, owner of the international advertising company Amillidius, founder of the NANOJY women’s clothing brand, to the chief editor and owner of the Fostylen magazine, and saw how Elvira organized her life so that it served her as an additional source of inspiration.

My husband and I have long dreamed of a new apartment in Lisbon, so we had a fairly clear idea of ​​what it should be like. To create the “apartment of our dreams”, we bought an apartment with a room of 250 square meters. Of course, we had to puzzle over the planning – we changed it completely, but it turned out exactly what we wanted.

The only drawback is that the hall turned out to be too small. I wanted to make it as comfortable and spacious as possible: put a table with fresh flowers in the center, like in old Hollywood films.

At the first stage of work on the apartment, I hired one of the coolest Portuguese design companies to develop our apartment project. But their help ended exactly on the miscalculation of the dimensions, the layout of the space based on my wishes, and the technical drawing. Later I did everything myself.

When choosing furniture for the apartment, I preferred Italian manufacturers. Firstly, everything made in Italy is always incredibly beautiful. And secondly, Italian furniture is not only beautiful but also of very high quality.

Our kitchen is from a Portuguese manufacturer. We chose a kitchen made of natural white wood, which not only looks impressive but also gives a feeling of warmth and comfort. My husband and I love light colors in the interior in general. I also added a mirrored work wall, which visually enlarges the space and adds gloss and glamour to the apartment.

My favorite room in the apartment is the dressing room. When the whole house falls asleep, I live between the study and the wardrobe. Here I usually get ready for a new day, choose outfits for shooting, get inspired, and go creative, even meditate. And no one will disturb me there, because this is only “my” space. After I settled in the dressing room, it turned out, that I had too many pairs of shoes and had to add another column in the center which accommodated over 400 pairs. My favorite shoes!

This column is especially striking now. All my favorite pairs are kept in it. I have a long-term “affair” with shoes, and it had started long before the appearance of Carrie Bradshaw’s image and other shoe “maniacs” in the mass culture. Since childhood, I love good shoes, my mother taught me to do that. And if my family did not always have enough money for expensive clothes, then a pair of high-quality leather shoes was the most desired gift on the occasion of my birthday or an excellent end of the school year.

The study is the room where the real magic happens. This is where I work, create new projects, draw sketches for new collections, go through the press, and work with clients. Also, since this is our first full-fledged home in Portugal, for the first time, I had a feeling of home and the desire to make a family library. Now you still don’t see it in the photo, because it is being developed by Italian designers. So the study will soon be filled with books.

The bedroom is also not yet fully finished: I plan to decorate the walls at the head of the bed and add mirrors to expand the space.

I spend a lot of time in the bathroom. Therefore, we have both a shower cabin and a jacuzzi, which helps to relax and tidy my body up. Previously, I was convinced that candles, foam, rose petals in the bathroom are troubles of women who have nothing else to do. But now I realized: when you are tired to the limit, you just need certain rituals to relax. So now, all these cute things are in my evening arsenal, which, by the way, is used not only by me but also by my husband.