In eclectic Hong Kong flat, event planner makes feature of her props
A party planner has salvaged mementos from her events to create a space that both amuses and inspires
Text Catherine Shaw / Styling Anji Connell / Photography David Wong
Event planner and designer Emanuela Santi knows how to throw a party. She organised supermodel Naomi Campbell's 40th birthday bash five years ago and, more recently, the amfAR Aids-research fundraising gala at the Cannes Film Festival.
So it's no surprise that her 700 sq ft apartment, tucked away on a narrow Mid-Levels lane, is decorated with not only eclectic items collected from around the world but also intriguing props.
"My personal life and work are interchangeable," says Santi, who began her career in the fashion industry, working for Hugo Boss followed by Lane Crawford.
In 2011, with her now business partner, Stefan Santoni, she set up creative consultancy Tuff Consult. Santi is also the co-founder of accessories brand Susanna Valerio, named after her Italian designer mother.
Santi's rented apartment features a central open-plan living area with a separate compact kitchen, bathroom and one bedroom. The vibrant colours and imaginative settings of her events are echoed in this cosy retreat through a series of decorative pieces, including a rug picked up in Mumbai, India, a trio of vintage Moroccan mirrors, small side tables from Egypt and a custom-made lacquered coffee table from Vietnam.
Her favourite spot is the deep windowsill in the living room.
"I have all the things I love [on it], from Ming-style vases that I used to decorate my brother's wedding table, to my books and anything that inspires me."
The apartment is the smallest space she has inhabited, but, Santi says, the only challenge has been finding enough storage for her extensive wardrobe: one wall of the bedroom is lined with closets bursting with clothes, shoes and handbags.
The designer says many of the props from her events, which clients have left behind, double as decorative pieces in her office and home.
"I hate wastage and many of these pieces are extraordinary one-offs that remind people of a special occasion."
For daily inspiration, Santi turns to photographer and storyteller Tim Walker.
"His set designs transport you to a land where reality and fantasy are blurred. That is what I strive for."
For Santi, this philosophy often translates into repurposing old objects in interesting ways. For instance, an antique three-tier cake stand has been transformed with a cascade of grapes while a 2.5-metre-high mirror, propped against the wall, hides daily clutter tucked away behind it and acts as a large mood board when Santi works from home.
"I have to be somewhere completely quiet to think. I stick pictures and other inspirations directly onto the mirror," she says.
Santi was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and lived in Cairo, Egypt, before moving to Hong Kong in 1991. The globetrotter is a self-confessed magpie and her apartment is a treasure trove of objects: the surfboard propped up against a wall in the bathroom is a case in point.
Her bedroom, however, is a departure from this style, featuring a soft grey wall and a matching grey-and-white striped headboard.
"My mother and I painted [the headboard] in one afternoon," she says.
The small galley-like kitchen showcases a dash of theatrical creativity, with its retractable Chinese red linen and black lacquer dividing screen and artful arrangements of decorative plates with jewel-like faceted glassware by Mario Luca Giusti.
"I'm a producer," Santi says. "In the parties and events I [organise] it is my responsibility to create a fantasy, but the most important thing is to imbue a space with life. And that is exactly what I have done at home."
Bathroom Santi stores her Australian Duranbah surfboard in the bathroom. The two Moroccan mirrors were picked up in Marrakesh. The blue-and-white ceramic stool is the same as before.