Designer Marongiu relishes home with 'best view of Paris'

Fashion designer Marcel Marongiu

From Elsa Klensch
CNN Style Correspondent

PARIS, France (CNN) -- -- It wasn't the interior that initially sold fashion designer Marcel Marongiu on his Paris apartment. It was the stunning view of the city.

"When I came in here, I said, well, maybe it's too small," he said. "But it's true that the balcony and the view is fantastic. So I actually took it for that."

But there's plenty to admire inside.

"Everything is about mixing, finding, creating life between objects. It can be old, it can be new, it can be Western, it can be ethnic," he said. "It's all about trying to find the right combination of things, working together."

VIDEO CNN's Elsa Klensch tours Marongiu's apartment Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     GALLERY Click to tour the apartment

Marongiu, 37, himself is a mix: half French, half Swedish. His furnishings and collections come from families in France and Sweden, plus from flea markets around Paris and the world. Much is 18th- and 19th-century.

"When I come home I need roots around me. I need to calm down because I work with fashion every day," he said. "It's about being contemporary and going forward, so I need calm and peace when I get home, and I find that in old things."

Then there's that view. Marongiu is consistently drawn to his terrace, where the city, in all its spired beauty, stretches into the distance.

"I see everything," he said. "I see the Eiffel Tower, I see Sacre Coeur. I see the Opera. I see Place Vendome. It's beautiful."

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Marcel Marongiu

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