Her Venice Era

Diane von Furstenberg is making herself at home in one of La Serenissima's most storied palazzos, but when it comes to the legendary designer's next act, don't mistake relocation for retirement.

- JAMES REGINATO

‘‘It’s completely by accident that I ended up here,” says Diane von Furstenberg, perching on a bronze daybed in the piano nobile––the second floor of a palazzo, traditionally where Italian nobles live––of the Palazzo Brandolini, one of Venice’s most venerable buildings. Three generations of the patrician Brandolini family still occupy apartments within the sprawling 15th-century palace, which fronts the Grand Canal, but von Furstenberg has taken a long lease on the stupendous principal floor, where she plans to spend several months a year. Following a long renovation, she has just moved in. As we saw in the recent documentary Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge, there is little fashion’s fairy godmother emeritus hasn’t done in her 77 years. But in Venice she has found the makings for a glorious finale. “This is going to be the stage for the winter of my life,” she announces.

For decades von Furstenberg has been returning to Venice at the end of every summer, when she and her media mogul husband Barry Diller sail into town on the Eos, their majestic three-masted schooner, just in time for the glamorous Venice International Film Festival. When not attending star-studded premieres or balls, she loves to power-walk through the car-free city’s maze of calli and corti.