Marlene Taschen’s Milan apartment is a homage to books and contemporary art

What would you have thought as a child, returning from school, if you found the big names of the artistic avant-garde wildly enjoying themselves in your father’s office? Well, if your father was Benedikt Taschen, the man who turned a small specialized publishing business into a world-renowned independent publishing house, the fact that Helmut Newton, Jeff Koons, Cicciolina, Christo, and Jeanne-Claude walked through your home would have seemed perfectly normal. “People drank and laughed in my father’s office in Cologne,” Marlene Taschen recalls, speaking about her formative years spent in the family company, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year. “Publishing isn’t always a serious business.”

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Today the CEO of the publishing house her father founded in 1980, with experience working as a waitress in a German pub in Australia, studying international relations in Panama, and a period in London helping expand Taschen’s operations in the United Kingdom, Marlene has another ace up her sleeve: she witnessed Claudia Schiffer’s Chanel show at the Grand Palais in the 90s (around the same time Taschen published Karl Lagerfeld’s first photography monograph). “My father always ran everything as a family business,” she says. “And when you have children, you just have to bring them along.”

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We met her a few days before her 40th birthday, in her apartment in Milan’s Sempione district. She was dressed in a blue silk Marta Ferri blouse and comfortable white Levi’s, a kind of uniform she usually pairs with CB Made in Italy moccasins and a few vintage pieces from Chanel or Saint Laurent.

“My sense of elegance definitely developed since moving here,” she says, reflecting on her relocation from London to Milan in 2024 with her husband, Milanese writer Maio Guarnacci Molho, and their two daughters, Aurelia (14) and Olympia (4). “In Italy, it’s not just about what you wear but how you wear it—depending on the occasion and the time. It’s about dressing in a way that feels comfortable, whether you’re going to a cocktail or for a walk.”

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While motivated by personal reasons, the decision to move to Milan also opened “opportunities for major business ventures.” A recently opened bookbinding workshop in Lainate, about twenty minutes from the city center, allows the company to manage the entire production cycle of a large part of its own publications. The move has also positively impacted her work-life balance, as Marlene notes, comparing the Milanese pace to London’s.

“There is a lunch culture here,” she observes, revealing that she prefers places frequented by locals, such as La Brisa, La Latteria, and Al Matarel. “I love traditional family-run restaurants, with menus that are more or less always the same. I don’t feel the need to constantly try something new.”

As expected, the apartment is filled with Taschen editions, lined up on shelves that stretch from floor to ceiling. The space exudes an atmosphere that is both sophisticated and relaxed. In the living room, a bright space with white walls, a monumental David Hockney book holds a place of honor, an example of the oversized Sumo edition, which began with the volume dedicated to Helmut Newton. It is so large that the same craftsman who bound the Vatican Bible was employed for its binding, and it also became the most expensive book published in the 20th century when a signed copy by 80 famous subjects from the photographs sold at auction for $430,000.

“We invest love and care into our books because we want them to be beautiful objects for living spaces,” Marlene says. “They are ambitious works, a combination of aesthetics and content.”

She describes her apartment as a joyful space devoted to art. Currently, it displays paintings from Grace Weaver’s “Flowers” series, whose monograph Taschen will publish. “Many of the works decorating this home are by artists we collaborate with,” she says. “For me, work and private life are always intertwined.”

The rest of the interior is made up of antiques that rotate: “This isn’t a static space. It changes, just like life.”

Marlene’s father lives in Los Angeles, where he remains active as a publisher, while she manages the daily operations from Milan, following the same unconventional philosophy. “Everything starts with human relationships and a sense of family,” she says, revealing that aside from special editions, publications are planned no more than four months in advance. “Our motto is to stay flexible—that allows us to adapt to current needs.”

She shows us materials for upcoming editions, including Massimo Listri’s “Italian Palaces” and a collector’s edition dedicated to Sophia Loren’s life. “We are not a marketing agency,” she emphasizes. “When we work on a book, we put everything into it because we truly believe in it. We strive to create works that have lasting appeal.”

FOTO: ADRIANNA GLAVIANO

MODA: ARIEL CÂMARA BRETAS