Among the 216 pieces on display in New York City last fall as part of The Power of Style: Verdura at 75 were Coco Chanel’s circa 1930 original “Maltese Cross” cuffs (above), the “Winged” brooch that Joan Fontaine wore in Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion, and Greta Garbo’s 1939 “Curb-Link” watch bracelet. The exhibit, a retrospective of master jeweler Duke Fulco di Verdura’s work, was curated by Patricia Lansing ‘96, along with her parents, Carolina and Reinaldo Herrera. Verdura’s long career of designing one-of-a-kind pieces for famous clients began with Coco Chanel in Paris in the 1920s, shifted to Hollywood in the 1930s, and then to New York City, where he opened his Fifth Avenue salon in 1939. He died in 1978. “This exhibition was a labor of love,” says Verdura President Nico Landrigan ‘02. “You can be familiar with all of the different aspects of a person’s life and work, but until it is fully assembled the depth of his contribution cannot be fully imagined.”
