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"An electric guitar wails, and a keyboard chimes right in. It&amp;#039;s a good thing the neighbors are rarely around when Gilles Mendel and his teenage children rock out on weekends, given the decibel levels the trio generates. Says the blue-eyed, close-cropped fashion designer, &amp;quot;We have no problem converting the apartment into something of a soundstage.&amp;quot; With Mendel manning a guitar and daughter Chloe and son Sacha taking charge of the other instruments, tunes by Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, and the Beatles regularly shake the rooms of the family&amp;#039;s elegant duplex near Central Park.   This juxtaposition of raucous use and subtly rendered spaces seems perfectly normal to the CEO of J. Mendel, a fashion house known for fanciful furs and painstakingly crafted red-carpet gowns whose lines appear misleadingly spare. The clash between the apartment&amp;#039;s shiny surfaces and mirrored walls (reminiscent of the 1970s glamour embodied by Halston) and its earthier elements (a Picasso lithograph, a vintage African-style ceramic mask) is a provocative consequence that its owner finds infinitely pleasing.  &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s definitely not a minimalist but neither is there any desire for excess,&amp;quot; says Mendel&amp;#039;s friend Alan Tanksley, an interior designer who took the residential settings in hand. &amp;quot;Gilles encounters so much visual noise in his working life; at home he was looking for a tailored, pared-down environment.&amp;quot;  Until recently, however, his client had amassed an enviable collection of Art Deco furniture and Paris flea-market finds, which he ultimately decided not to deploy here. &amp;quot;With this apartment, I felt it was time to move into a new era, to move forward,&amp;quot; Mendel says. The treasures have been stored for Chloe and Sacha, the potential sixth generation to lead a family firm that was launched in 1870.  Back then, Joseph Breitman, Mendel&amp;#039;s great-great-grandfather, wrapped Russian aristocrats in sable. Three years ago, his descendant energized the business by launching sumptuous ready-to-wear that attracted a new roster of ardent Mendelites, among them Natasha Richardson, Demi Moore, Kyra Sedgwick, Beyonc\u00E9, and Kate Hudson. In the movie Factory Girl, Sienna Miller donned a striped mink coat custom made by the firm. Grindhouse star Rose McGowan showed up in a Grecian-style gown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art&amp;#039;s Costume Institute gala last spring with Mendel as her escort; he had whipped up her silk confection the night before.  Any of the aforementioned women would recognize this duplex as Mendel&amp;#039;s. And not just for its creative use of fur. (Though who else would swathe a vintage Swan chair by Arne Jacobsen in meticulously sheared white mink?) &amp;quot;I wasn&amp;#039;t initially convinced that my fashion principles would work here,&amp;quot; says the designer, &amp;quot;but Alan allowed me to realize them.&amp;quot;   When it comes to influences, Mendel has two particular weaknesses: the Far East and the 1970s. The latter period, he notes, was &amp;quot;a very special time, populated by muses like Jane Birkin, Charlotte Rampling, and Romy Schneider.&amp;quot; Accordingly, Mendel&amp;#039;s part of an 1882 townhouse synthesizes those disparate worlds\u2014the romance of Asia meeting disco-era polish, Forbidden City scarlet giving way to floors painted high-gloss black, mirrored walls, and silvery flashes of chrome and nickel.  The work of Eero Saarinen, the Finnish-American architect responsible for the breathtaking TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport, is another Mendel touchstone. A Saarinen Tulip table topped with black marble centers the dining room, where the inky walls offer a gallery of black-and-white photographs\u2014some are by legendary Colombian lensman Nereo, while others were snapped by Mendel&amp;#039;s friend G\u00FCnter Siever, the German \u00FCber-hairstylist.  &amp;quot;I love how Saarinen transformed heavy materials like metal and concrete and made them seem weightless, pushing the boundaries of their potential,&amp;quot; Mendel says. &amp;quot;I try to do likewise with fur, using it in unexpected ways, recasting it as a lithe fabric that can be fashioned into almost anything.&amp;quot; With a grin, he adds, &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m the only designer I know of who creates furs that don&amp;#039;t always keep you warm!&amp;quot;  In the living room\u2014an almond-pale space anchored by an oversize sofa that seems to float atop a mirrored base\u2014pillows of nougat-beige mink made in Mendel&amp;#039;s workshops are scattered here and there. A floor cushion of shaggy white Mongolian lamb is tossed invitingly in front of the fireplace. In one corner is a Vladimir Kagan armchair tailored with jet-black pony hide.  In the striking master bedroom, a zebra rug serves as a graphic counterpoint to the blood-orange walls and ebonized wood floor. A deliberate departure from the &amp;#039;70s attitude of the rest of the apartment, this private space, Mendel says, &amp;quot;evokes Asia to me and is very close to my heart. When I sleep here, it takes me into another world.&amp;quot; But not too far: When the temperature drops, there&amp;#039;s a chinchilla blanket ready to warm things up. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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