The dark wooden floor makes the apartment seem multitextured and homely. “It took a long time as they had to put sticky black oil over it. I wanted a look that was old and worn. Of course, having had a few parties with girls in high heels, they have added even more wear and tear.”

When Black first found the apartment eight years ago, it was a shell of two apartments. He worked on creating a fluid space downstairs, opening up to a galleried level on the second floor.

“I had already bought the first apartment and then the upstairs flat came up for sale soon after. I had no idea I would be buying another place so quickly. But it seemed crazy to let it go,” he says.

He knocked the upstairs flat into his own and created a steel staircase leading from his bedroom to an extensive dressing room area and study. Now it encompasses his needs for both work and home life. The renovations took about a year-and-a-half in all.

Downstairs Black created one large sitting room. He knocked the wall through from the entrance and installed a library and small study where he likes to sit, sketch and pore over his many books. “My favourites are historical, but I have a mix of everything from Bridget Jones to books on Rasputin,” he says.

On the other side of the library are a lithograph by Matisse and a Henry Moore sculpture.

“Art is my one luxury. It gives me great joy to look at the Bridget Riley painting every day, but I also love to go to degree shows and buy from younger emerging artists, too,” he adds.

The furniture is also exquisitely designed and understated. A pale oak chair by the Japanese designer Isamu Noguchi lies next to a concrete table designed by Black’s long-term business partner, Jonathan Reed, who has worked for David Bowie, Iman and on many other celebrity homes.

The kitchen looks completely spotless. Slick stainless-steel units face a wooden table.

“I found this table in Florence. They used to make jewellery on it,” he explains. On top, arranged like a still-life, are baskets of artichokes, fennel and garlic, looking like a Renaissance painting. There is a little balcony at one end, adding to the romantic old-fashioned Italian feel.

Next to the kitchen is the bathroom, a serene vision of monochromatic elegance. Black slate tiles surround a wet-room shower. “I wanted the bathroom to be minimal. There are not many rooms where you can use all black without feeling drained of colour,” he says.

It all could hardly be more different from the farmhouse in Barry, near Carnoustie, that Black grew up in.

“I had a marvellous rural upbringing. My father was a book binder, hence my love of books, and my mother encouraged me to paint. What was so wonderful was the space outside where you could run around and explore.”

Black often visits Scotland, and his last collection was based on the Scottish Arts and Crafts movement.

“It was more about Glasgow girls,” he says. “I didn’t want to do something as obvious as Charles Rennie Mackintosh. I’m trying to give Scotland a modern slant from my experience in Italy. Previously, I had all my clothes made in Italy; now I source many fabrics and cashmeres from Scotland.

“My next collection — at London Fashion Week this September — also pays homage to Scotland,” he says. “Maybe one day I will go back to live there.”

Back outside, amid the hustle of the Milan pavements, the Zen-like calm of Black’s cool apartment already seems like a distant dream.

www.graemeblack.com

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