Inside Roberto Coin’s Venetian Masquerade Ball
Created with Roberto Coin|
Published on: February 13, 2025
It is late October, and the celebrated Italian jeweler Roberto Coin is welcoming us into the Palazzo Pisani Moretta on the Grand Canal in Venice, where he and his wife, Pilar (pictured together, below left), are hosting an epic Carnevale-inspired evening. Now 80, the jeweler is known for his vibrant, colorful designs, many of which are inspired by the city he calls home. Venice, Coin says, is “the most beautiful open museum of the world for me.”
And indeed, looking through Coin’s collections, the leitmotif of Venetian influence is palpable: There are stylized florals whose pointed petals echo the arched windows of the Venetian Gothic palazzos lining the Grand Canal. There are intricate geometric patterns that evoke the architecture of the Doge’s Palace on the Piazetta San Marco (Coin’s favorite Venetian landmark). Mosaic-like tiled designs that nod to the city’s Moorish influences. The pieces are joyful, colorful, ebullient—they capture the spirit of discovery and possibility and creativity that defines the floating city.
“When you understand Venice, you understand life,” Coin says. And to understand Venice? This is Coin’s goal with the masquerade ball, for which guests are outfitted in elaborate Renaissance costumes created by the couturier Antonia Sautter, who has also staged the entertainment. The evening is a fantasy of lavish florals and jewels, music and dancing, an intoxicating feast for the senses. As we arrive by water taxi, we are greeted by harlequins and jesters and winged performers on stilts. There are trays of canapés and flutes of champagne, candlelight and crystal, and the swish of silks and velvets.
But it is not until we are ushered up the sweeping staircase to the dining room that the evening really begins: At one end of the long banquet table is a stage where, over the course of the (many-coursed) meal, Sautter’s troupe will perform. It is pure spectacle, in the best way: There is Mozart and Madonna, Puccini and Queen, and a Rolling Stones–Die Zauberflöte mashup that I’d download if I could. It is all captivating, and the parallels between the performances and Coin’s creations are inescapable. They both tap into a sense of wonder, of unbridled creativity. When I ask Coin where he finds inspiration, his answer is simple: “Life in general,” he tells me. “I love life.” It’s a good answer. And, after getting a glimpse into the world he lives in, I think, what’s not to love?
I’ve always felt a special feeling with women. I love them all, as each one of them expresses different personality, taste, and style. I feel that today women are empowering and evolving themselves stronger than ever. —Roberto Coin
