Inside Diane von Furstenberg’s Venetian Home in the Palazzo Giustinian Brandolini

Diane von Furstenberg would be much happier talking about women’s empowerment and Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris than her home in Venice. “I don’t want to sound like just another rich American woman in Venice,” she says politely, yet quite firmly, in her purring voice.

And “I don’t want to pretend I am Venetian,” adds von Furstenberg, who had just arrived in Venice on the three-masted yacht Eos she owns with her husband Barry Diller.

She is very respectful of the Italian city and its history and her affection for Venice is obvious — she peppers her Instagram handle with views of the lagoon and its ornate buildings. Von Furstenberg spends several months of the year in Venice and in 2022, she decided to begin holding the DVF Awards here, timing the event with the Venice Film Festival.

“The city has always been part of my life and I compare Venice to an eternal, legendary and very resilient woman, always looking ahead,” she explains.

The annual DVF Awards were created in 2010 by the fashion designer and The Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation to recognize and support extraordinary women who are dedicated to transforming and inspiring the lives of other women. From that first edition in Venice, which recognized Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, and “Selma” director Ava DuVernay, among others, each award bestows $100,000, doubling the initial grant.

The awards have drawn such powerful women as Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Oprah Winfrey, as well as A-listers such as George Clooney, accompanied by his wife and human rights lawyer Amal, who last year received the DVF Leadership Award for her work on behalf of victims of human rights abuses, and Dame Emma Thompson. Von Furstenberg admits these celebrities help draw attention to the event, but her focus is to amplify the voice of, and support, displaced, challenged and at-risk women, whether Indigenous or hailing from Afghanistan, Africa or Ukraine.

Once again, this year the awards were bestowed as the Venice Film Festival was kicking off and, ahead of the evening ceremony, von Furstenberg held a lunch for the recipients at her apartment in the city. This unfolded after a talk with Winfrey, herself a DVF Award recipient in 2012, on U.S. politics and ranging from reproductive rights to the American Dream.

Bringing People Together

The lunch reflected a key goal von Furstenberg has set with her home in Venice, which is “to bring people together and create connections, opening up a constructive dialogue.” Because, as Winfrey put it, her longtime friend is always “on.”

“Diane is this way all the time,” Winfrey says, referring to the fashion designer’s activist initiatives. “This is not a show for her. This isn’t just something to be on display. She’s always thinking about what can we do to help the world? What can we do to bring about change? She’s always trying to connect people, anything that’s going to bring enlightenment or some kind of empowerment to all of us.”

With the lunch, seeing awardees such as Graça Machel and Dame Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand, around the same table, “I felt it was closing a circle,” the hostess says.

Under the sparkling original Murano chandeliers, the table was set with glassware by Marcantonio Brandolini’s Laguna~B brand and placemats by Chiarastella Cattana, both based in Venice. Wooden lounge chairs around the long glass and wrought brass table by Brazilian postmodern sculptor Saint Clair Cemin juxtaposed with the imposing stuccoed walls while classical paintings added the laid-back touch von Furstenberg is known for.

To call her home an apartment is an understatement. She is renting the “piano nobile,” or the principal floor of a palazzo that usually includes the main reception room, of the 15th-century Palazzo Giustinian Brandolini on the Grand Canal — a marvel of wooden carved ceilings, Baroque gilded wall mirrors and statues of cherubs standing guard over the massive doors.

It’s a family building, owned by the 97-year-old Countess Cristiana Brandolini d’Adda, sister of the late Fiat tycoon Gianni Agnelli. The designer married the nephew of the countess, the late Prince Egon von Furstenberg, in 1969; they separated in 1973 and divorced in 1983.

“I came here the first time when I was 20, and I have been coming each year ever since,” she recalls fondly. “Egon’s aunt lives here and she realized the apartment would be suited for what I want to achieve, connecting people without a financial purpose. Also, I feel Venice will have a major role and impact in civilization in the next years.” Asked why, she simply says, “It’s an instinct and I always think positive.”

Interior designer, antique dealer and gallery director Chahan Minassian helped von Furstenberg renovate the apartment. Of Armenian origin, born in Lebanon, Minassian, like von Furstenberg, is a patron of the Venetian Heritage Foundation. On the occasion of the Venice Art Biennale, which runs until Nov. 24, Minassian was tapped to reenvision the historic Fortuny headquarters and former home of Countess Gozzi into a gallery showcase of contemporary design, opened to the broader design community for the very first time.

While opening it up to her friends, activists, artists and writers, she underscores “this is a personal home, I brought things from Paris and New York. It’s grandiose and very beautiful and I wanted to make it cozy, bohemien, reflecting my personality.”

Case in point: bold animal print rugs contrast with decorative wallpaper and ruched curtains, called Impero in reference to the 18th-century Napoleonic era. A Bert Stern image of Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra hangs in her bedroom and Andy Warhol’s 1974 paintings of von Furstenberg are placed in the family room. In her studio, a photo by François-Marie Banier of actress Silvana Mangano, a Francesco Clemente painting over the classic fireplace and a work of French artist and actress Anh Duong are some of von Furstenberg’s cherished pieces.

Also in her studio stands an imposing floor-to-ceiling bookshelf created by Renzo Mongiardino, the famed architect who renovated the palazzo as well as Countess Cristiana Brandolini D’Adda’s Venetian country estate, Vistorta. Many family photos pepper the bookshelf and the studio.

“There is magic in connection and kindness is a currency. This is also very much what leads me in Venice, in this place, at this stage of my life, since I’ve entered the winter of my life, and I hope I have a very long winter. The important thing is to be productive. Connecting people creates energy that goes around and around,” she concludes.