The general advice is to keep work and personal life separate. However, Olivier Garce and Clio Dimovski chose different paths. The French couple, both life and business partners, met while studying interior design in Paris and later embarked on a career in the field together. Today, they live and work happily, and the Lisbon apartment they share with their child and dog is also their showroom. Couples are forging their own path, making the rules. Garcé and Dimofski are interior designers, but they are also gallery owners who organize exhibitions, design their own furniture collections, and work hard with their artisan partners.
After working for various companies early in their careers, the two ended up in New York where they were hired by famous interior designer Pierre Yovanovitch. After learning from the masters of this profession at a critical time, they felt it was time to build something themselves. They decided to establish their own studio in Lisbon, where the climate, relaxed attitude to life and local craft traditions were all attractive to the couple. Their creative efforts are ultimately rooted in craft.
“We work closely with potters, carpenters, upholsterers, metal, iron and glass workers,” Garce says. “Every project is a dialogue between us and them, which makes our aesthetic our own.” Among other collaborations, they created tiles made for showroom apartments. I designed it. This tile was accidentally read by a young international couple in AD Germany. After the same couple decided to make Porto their home, they reached out and found a stunning 5,400 square foot townhouse with exceptional architectural details. However, due to extensive water damage, the building remained vacant for a long time.
The newly restored street facade of an 1893 city villa with custard brick.
