COIN A PHRASE

Armed with a hotelier's instincts and a soaring imagination, Roberto Coin reveals how his eponymous brand continues to set sparkling standards for the jewellery industry.

- Interview by Eleanor Edstrom.

Can I smoke in front of you?" Roberto Coin asks through my laptop screen, halfway through lighting a cigarette. It's 10am in Vicenza, Italy's City of Gold - where the fine jeweller is based - and somehow the timing and gesture feel unmistakably on brand. Coin, after all, is a beacon of Italian charisma.

"I am in love with life," the Venice-born bon vivant declares, citing his lifelong pursuit of beauty as the bedrock of his namesake jewellery brand. "Anything which made me happy, I followed." It's a motto that has served Coin well. Today, his atelier is a paragon of intricate technique and original thought, with more than 1000 points of sale globally. Coin's inimitable pieces are embedded with personal narratives and historical allusions, often seen gracing the red carpet on A-list figures such as Halle Berry, Nicole Kidman or Oprah Winfrey.

The jeweller's ascent was far from conventional. After losing his parents at a young age, Coin left Italy at just 10 to attend boarding school in Switzerland. He spent his early career managing high-end hotels, where he absorbed the art of exceptional service – an approach he has carried forward to his work in luxury jewellery. During these years, Coin also developed a fascination with the beautifully dressed women who stayed at the hotels, always observing their style. "The jewellery industry affected me more than the clothes, the bags and the shoes," he elaborates. "So what does it mean, all this? It means that if you fall in love properly, you go for it."