“There was no past for me here,” Verdura told the New Yorker in 1941. “I didn’t have say, ‘My God, Venice isn’t what it used to be!” As a transplanted Sicilian aristocrat, Verdura imbued his creations with a sense of irreverence. Often favoring the warm glow of gold for evening jewelry, he broke with convention and scattered it with precious diamonds. While platinum had been the traditional choice to mount diamonds, New York and Hollywood society quickly adopted Fulco’s fondness for gold, even bringing their old diamond settings to him for remounting.