The Telegraph - Online - August 2018

«Italian Chic: inside Assouline's latest publication celebrating Italy's elegant charm.»

«From the waters Capri and the Amalfi Coast, to the Renaissance art of Florence and graceful canals of Venice, Italy is synonymous with style and steeped in culture and traditions. Assouline’s latest volume, Italian Chic, explores some of the country’s historic locations with photography from Daria Reina and illustrations by Andrea Ferolla.»

T - The New York Times Style Magazine  - May 2018

«Rome is a city of pockets and alcoves. Strolling its streets, you catch glimpses of intimate spaces that exist just beyond the public facades: Wisteria-draped courtyards, ivy-shrouded archways, begonias spilling from terraces. These hints of private realms beckon most alluringly from the Tiber River-adjacent Regola neighborhood, known since the Renaissance as the center for mercantile activities from plate-making to leather-stitching. It’s here, in a space in the historic Palazzo Capponi Antonelli, a 16th-century building with a pebbled cortile and a stone fountain, that the boutique Chez Dede sells the best of contemporary Italian artisanry. In the ground-floor boutique, whose walls are hung with posters drawn by co-owner Andrea Ferolla, a 56-year-old fashion illustrator and creative director, items are arranged in inviting tableaus —- a retail version of the ideal Roman home. The brand’s own patterned canvas carryalls sit atop velvet-upholstered couches, and the living room’s lampshades are sewn from vintage Arjumand’s World wallpaper; the vanity’s shelves are lined with Linda Rodin’s perfume; and beyond that, there is a closet dedicated to robes, dresses and coats by the Italian line Giuliva Heritage Collection. “I wanted to show how objects could inform each other,” says co-owner Daria Reina, a 48-year-old photographer and creative director who, with Ferolla, opened the shop three years ago. (Like many respectable creative duos, the two had a scandalous affair before becoming a couple 16 years ago, back when Reina was freelancing at an agency where Ferolla was a creative director.)

But as seductive as the shop itself is, it’s the private back-room workspace where the couple runs their business and designs new products that best reflects their intimate partnership. The secret atelier is the pezzo forte of the place, a beautifully cluttered warren of objects, art pieces and ephemera. Reina and Ferolla’s desks face each other; both are stacked with sheafs of sketches, paper samples and swatches of fabric. Overseeing the chaos is a pair of ’50s-era
marble parrot sculptures, a gift from Reina for their ninth wedding anniversary. On the other side of the room are two couches — one a squishy 1940s mustard velvet sofa, the other a white linen divan covered with Cap Ferret-themed striped blankets. The walls above them are hung with art collected on trips throughout France, including a 1950s poster for an Arles bull-fight and a coastal arazzo from Villefranche-sur-mer.
Behind the furniture, a towering wooden bookcase is stuffed with artists’ catalogs, a first edition of “Dumbo” and a collection of antique Puccini operas. The room is 18 moodily llt by abat-jours and midcentury Italian brass desk lamps that keep the atmosphere cozy and cool even in summer.

This atelier overlooks a garden where the couple hosts events: Here, ivy grows on the surrounding buildings, creeping over the windows and wrapping itself around clotheslines pinned with a rainbow of bright undergarments. In the spring, the space turns lilac and white when the Wisteria and jasmine bushes bloom. The courtyard, like all of Rome’s best spaces, isn’t visible from the street; you have to comprehend the neo-Classical style of the architect Virginio Vespignani, who restructured the building in 1840, in order to find it.
“We are inspired by artists who have worked in a similar fashion, mixing the private with the public, the intimate with the performative, the mundane with the precious,” says Reina, who was raised in Brussels as the daughter of an Italian diplomat. For the couple’s workshop, they took cues from figures like Cecil Beaton and Elsa Schiaparelli, who, she says, had “a taste for mixing life and art.” They were also motivated by the turreted Villa Santo Sospir on the French Riviera - the so-called “tattooed villa” that the director Jean Cocteau adorned with his own paintings in the 1950s - that has become a model for inhabitable design.

Although the two have long appreciated the impractical and whimsical, they’ve also been equally attuned to the appeal of everyday objects that make city life more pleasant. Soon after meeting in 1996, they began traveling the world, gathering inspiration for what would eventually become their work. In 2004, back in Rome, they were working together as brand consultants and art directors for clients including Bulgari and Chopard when they began the tradition of sending their clients custom-made holiday gifts: a printed apron, perhaps, or a personalized chocolate praline. They signed these pieces “Chez Dede,” a pseudonym that borrowed the shared French nickname for both their first names. After producing dozens of small objects, they decided to open a boutique to sell them alongside items from other makers they admired.
Ferolla, a native Italian, became Chez Dédé’s in-house illustrator, applying his cheeky-sexy designs to silk and cashmere scarves and T-shirts. And they’ve just completed a series of plates to be released this spring, that will include witty images of human archetypes such as the Playboy, the Little Soldier and the Snob. These figures are as much an homage to Ferolla’s influences - the French fashion illustrator Christian Bérard, the British portrait artist David Downton, the French costume designer Marcel Vertes - as they are a tribute to the joys of discovering the handmade and the irreverent. And that’s the way it should be, they agree: “In the design world, everyone takes themselves very seriously,” Ferolla says. “But we don’t care for that.”»

BOOK  - May 2018

«Who says they are only for keeping your hands warm?
A symbol of prestige and nobility as early as ancient Egyptian times, gloves are without doubt
the chicest of accessories. Making them even more irresistible today is the unmistakable touch of Andrea Ferolla, the co-founder with Daria Reina of Chez Dede, located in Via Monserrato in Rome's most baroque and artistic district; a kind of cabinet de curiosités full of charm, research and craftsmanship. Its new collection of gloves are unique, hand painted pieces of extreme elegance, designed in collaboration with Paris brand Agnelle, which has been synonymous with superior quality since 1937 and sought-after supplier of Dior, Lanvin, Givenchy, Alaia. F.I.»

Elle - May 2018

«… Da visitare, poco distante, è la boutique di Daria Reina e Andrea Ferolla, alias Chez Dédé (in via di Monserrato 35), che sposa made in Italy e lusso nomade: oltre alle famose shopper in canvas (iconica la St. Barth) e alle collezioni di ricerca (come i pigiami di Praline Le Moult o i cuscini di Maison de Vacances), un’ottima selezione di mobili e oggetti vintage. …»

The Monocle Travel Guides Series Rome - ongoing edition

«Andrea Ferolla and Daria Reina longtime creative directors and consultants for a wide roster of luxury brands, had always created gifts for their clients - but their savy friends soon convinced them to launch a brand of their own. All of Chez Dede’s totes are inspired by the memory of a place the pair have visited, from Tangiers to St Barts, Singapore to Salina."»

Departures Magazine - March/April 2018

«“We believe in handicraft and people who make something magical with their work,” said Reina, who with her partner will launch a Chez Dede women’s collection this year. “Something is happening in Rome, although slowly.” »

Robb Report - September 2017

«In the words of Carlos Souza, Worldwide brand Ambassador, Valentino « I love the particular taste of Chez Dede. They have myriad special items, and I love their pajamas and incense ».
In the words of Fabio Salini, jewelry designer « Chez Dede is a very special place where you can indulge your senses : the scent of candles and perfumed paper, the beauty of a new and creative handbag. Drawings, refined books, and poetic objects are all in one place here »

Wish Magazine - September 2017

About the decor of Hotel de Ricci « Ferolla and Reina have seen brilliantly to the nostalgia factor, via a design narrative that nods to the 1960s heyday of Roman style: suites boast whimsical wall murals painted by Ferolla (who’s also a fashion illustrator known for his naughty Gallic-influenced sketches of long-limbed, déshabillé young ladies), and collections of prime mid-20th-century furniture are artfully grouped in every space, meticulously refurbished with artisanal textiles from producers Reina features at Chez Dédé.»

Louis Vuitton City Guide Rome - Ongoing edition 2018

« Andrea Ferolla and Daria Reina run one of the most fascinating enterprises in Rome. Franco-italian, they baptized their curiosity cabinet with a name befitting a French Café. The swanky-yet-charming Chez Dede displays its own limited-edition creations and collections that mix Parisian insolence and Roman nonchalance. »

T Magazine of the New York Times - August 2017

« For the guest rooms, Lisi enlisted the help of his neighbors Daria Reina and Andrea Ferolla of Chez Dédé — the Old World concept shop known for those lettered canvas totes found on fashionable beaches the world over. »

The Escapist Monocle - Issue 06, 2017

Daria Reina and Andrea Ferolla opened Chez Dede in 2015, as both physical presence for their branding agency and a way to explore their other passions. Printed and hand-drawn illustrations by Ferolla line the walls, alongside Chez Dede’s trademark accessories ; leather totes and clutches are particularly sought after. Despite insisting they « aren’t really shopkeepers », Reina has a knack for retail : she has brought several labels to Rome, such as Parisian ceramicist Astier de Villatte. »

How To Spend it UK - November 2016

« The brainchild of Daria Reina and Andrea Ferolla – two of Italy’s top creative directors who have worked with such names as Bulgari – Chez Dédé is a bricks-and-mortar homage to an arguably endangered concept of truly handmade luxury. “For us – and I know this will sound high‑minded, but it’s true – this store is sort of a gift,” says Reina. “One through which we can work with real craftspeople, who are creating things that are poetic and beautiful, and absolutely not what the market dictates they should be making.” »

Read more on-line

Vanity fair France - June 2017

« Sur le terrain, fixer sa base via Monserrato, à deux pas du Campo de' Fiori en imitant David Downton, Andrea Ferolla et Richard Haines, invités en juin dernier par le concept-store Chez Dédé à accomplir en trois jours un mini-Grand Tour en ville pour y peindre, croquer, dessiner les meilleurs instants romains du moment. Ferolla ne venait pas de loin puisqu'il est le co-fondateur avec Daria Reina de Chez Dédé, adresse romaine nec plus ultra s'il en est.»

Vogue Us - September 2017

« As they say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. That’s especially true if those locals are as stylish, sophisticated, and in-the-know as Daria Reina and Andrea Ferolla, the husband-and-wife team behind Chez Dédé, a one-of-a-kind line of accessories and a very special and singular gallery/boutique in Rome.”»