Two years ago, the apartment of Filipa de Abreu’s dreams nearly slipped through her fingers. She had underbid both the asking price and an aggressive French overbidder on a century-old four-bedroom rental in Lisbon’s coveted Lapa neighbourhood. Its 12-foot-high (approx. 3.7 metres) ceilings, crown mouldings, and boiserie-detailed walls had been meticulously restored; the large windows and bougainvillea-covered terrace had an uninterrupted view of the Atlantic Ocean. Still, de Abreu informed her real estate agent, “I have a feeling the apartment is going to be mine.” She promptly headed off to India — but not before sending a letter to the apartment’s owner promising to cherish the space. Sure enough, upon her return, the apartment was hers.
De Abreu quickly settled in with her three children — sons Louis, 15, and Antoine, 10, and daughter, Maria, 14 — and the family dog, Flynn. “I named him after Errol Flynn,” she says. A bon vivant of the fashion world, she jet-sets from Lisbon to Europe’s bigger cities and New York in her role as a design consultant and brand ambassador for Tory Burch.
This story is from the March 2020 edition of ELLE Singapore.
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This story is from the March 2020 edition of ELLE Singapore.
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