Sources of inspiration for contemporary creatives: Meryll Rogge
Marni’s creative director is a fan of the art of Donald Judd and Nan Goldin (for whom she has developed ‘a genuine Stendhal syndrome’), the folk rock of Father John Misty and the creative genius of Cristóbal Balenciaga.
THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF MY STYLE My style has evolved over the years. Whilst I used to wear nothing but skirts in my twenties, by the time I was thirty I’d started to prefer trousers. Nowadays, I love a sort of everyday uniform: cashmere cardigans by B.B. Wallace – the knitwear brand I co-founded last year with Sarah Allsopp –, jeans from my own range and accessories by Marni, such as necklaces and slingbacks (cashmere jumper from €590, bbwallace.com; necklaces from €495, marni.com).
MY STYLE ICON I don’t have – and I don’t think I ever will have – just one style icon. Simone Rocha springs to mind straight away, though: I love the interplay between her aesthetic and her vision. Recently, I’ve also been fascinated by the personal style of the Belgian artist Jef Geys. And then there are the men and women on the streets of Milan: they embody authentic Milanese style, effortless, practical and refined in its tailoring. The way they combine materials, colours and silhouettes is a constant source of inspiration for me (simonerocha.com; the book Jef Geys. Catalogue Raisonnable, €77 on amazon.it; archive and information on the Belgian artist, who passed away in 2018, at jefgeys.com).
THE ARTIST AND THE PLACES THAT INSPIRE ME Donald Judd. His radical ideas and body of work continue to profoundly influence art, architecture and design. His work explores the relationship between space and objects, their functionality and a sense of essentiality that seems to transcend minimalism. A vision that can be felt in Marfa, but also in New York at the Judd Foundation. I used to live nearby when I was in Manhattan, but I never managed to visit it because it wasn’t open to the public at the time (juddfoundation.org. Part of the Judd retrospective, dedicated to the artist by MoMA in 2020, is available online at moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5076).
THE LAST MEAL THAT MADE AN IMPRESSION ON ME In March 2020, before the lockdown, I was in South Africa at Babylonstoren, one of the oldest Cape Dutch-style farms, at the foot of Mount Simonsberg in the Franschhoek wine valley. I dined at their restaurant, Babel, a stunning space that blends colonial architecture with contemporary glass walls. They follow a farm-to-fork: seasonal ingredients harvested from their botanical garden. I remember a vegetarian risotto with honey-roasted pumpkin and hazelnut butter, drizzled with an aromatic herb oil (cottage for two, €850 per night. On the website, you can also buy local specialities and view the vegetable patch and garden via webcam, babylonstoren.com).
THE ITEM I WOULD NEVER PART WITH I don’t like getting attached to things: I move around a lot and have changed homes many times in recent years. I was born in Ghent, then lived in Antwerp, New York and back in Belgium, until I moved to Milan with my family last year. I prefer to travel light, but there’s one thing I wouldn’t be without: my great-grandmother’s silverware. I use it every day and put it in the dishwasher. It’s a trick I learnt from my mother-in-law, and if I had the choice, I’d never go back to standard steel cutlery.
