FROM A STORE IN TRASTEVERE TO LOS ANGELES

You know the iron chariots of the colossal Ben Hur shot in Cinecittà?
It was the first major order for Romeo Rega. We are in 1959, but the success of this young iron craftsman had only begun a decade earlier, in a small shop in Trastevere, in via della Pelliccia, where with great skill he designed and built gates, railings and furniture in wrought iron.

At just 27, he enrolled in the provincial register of artisan enterprises and opened his first workshop, in vicolo della Frusta 6, where he collaborated with masters of wrought iron and forging. Thus, in the sixties, when he came into contact with personalities from the world of cinema and entertainment, he launched the “Romeo Rega” brand, which is characterized by the courageous application of traditional methods of working wrought iron to new industrial materials, such as brass. , steel and perspex.

Soon the company opens dozens of stores abroad, including Paris, Lyon, Nice, Bordeaux, Cannes, Marseille, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Monte Carlo, London, and then Miami, Los Angeles. In the capital, however, his showroom is in via di Ripetta 43.

Between the end of the seventies and the beginning of the eighties, Rega initiated important collaborations with established artists and designers, and with brands such as the Axrom Association, Vivai del Sud, Tommaso Barbi, Fabriziani & Calandra, as well as the famous collective Ripetta Group. Among his iconic objects: the “four rods” tables, the “zeta” consoles and the “obelisk” lamps. He passes away prematurely at the age of 59.