Celebrating 120 years of crystals from Swarovski SPRING / SUMMER 2015 â‚Ź12
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CONTENTS
From top: A close-up of ice crystals in Greenland, 2008; Sandy Powell’s sparkling slipper for Disney’s forthcoming Cinderella movie; top by Wes Gordon, and Mirrored Bird earrings by Lulu Frost, available at Cadenzza
THE CUT
12 SOCIAL DIARY
The latest Swarovski news from around the world, including celebratory events and awards ceremonies
14 TALENT SPOTTING
Forging opportunities for young creators, brightening up Beijing, and Ugg boots with added bling
16 BEST FOOT FORWARD
Los Angeles-based sibling designer duo NewbarK has a keen following among fans of luxe footwear, not least for its crystal-encrusted flats
19 A BRAND-NEW WORLD
Swarovski’s 120th anniversary and the 20th birthday of Crystal Worlds are cause for show-stopping celebrations
20 A NEW ICE AGE
A powerful and immersive Swarovski collaboration that highlights the chilling reality of climate change
23 THE XX FACTOR
Empowerment, education and investment – how the Swarovski Foundation aims to transform the lives of women all over the world
24 OUT OF THIS WORLD
Swarovski is ready for its close-up: Karl Lagerfeld draws on The Sound of Music, Cinderella’s slipper is adorned for a Hollywood remake, and a sparkling sci-fi extravaganza
26 TREND REPORT
The spring/summer 2015 catwalks were awash with both color and spectacular crystallized detailing
30 SNAKE CHARMER
Roberto Cavalli, that most unashamedly sensual of designers, has joined forces with Swarovski to produce a serpent-inspired jewelry collection for Cadenzza
32 LIGHT VISION
How the world’s largest clock, lit by 618,000 crystal-glass optics, helps pilgrims visiting Mecca keep the faith
35 WEB OF INTRIGUE
Didier Marcel’s captivating installation in Paris’s Jardin des Plantes is strung with an entirely new shape of crystal
36 HEART & SOLE
An innovative crystal fabric was the inspiration for shoe designer Alejandro Ingelmo’s dramatic new collection
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WHAT LIES BENEATH How one man’s embarrassment at buying lingerie for his wife led to the birth of $6bn empire Victoria’s Secret, which has collaborated with Swarovski for 12 years
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120 YEARS: PAST
44 GLASS ROOTS
Water, light and electricity were key to Daniel Swarovski’s fledgling business, which would go on to work with the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Coco Chanel and Christian Dior
48 AMERICAN DREAM
Rodarte’s beautifully ethereal collection for spring/summer 2015, featuring crystals from Swarovski
56 COSTUME DRAMA
A new touring exhibition lands in Los Angeles, telling the story of the iconic movie attire worn by everyone from Marlene Dietrich to Jared Leto
60 IT’S SHOW TIME!
Champagne, scandal and, of course, lots of razzle-dazzle – that legendary Parisian institution, the Moulin Rouge
120 YEARS: PRESENT
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REACH FOR THE STARS
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DRESSED TO THRILL
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A NEW PERSPECTIVE
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A FINE ROMANCE
Proving there’s substance behind the sparkle, Swarovski lends its weight to philanthropic projects worldwide
A retrospective of Alexander McQueen’s rule-breaking career offers an insight into the mind of a fashion genius
How Swarovski’s sparkling new body-con fabric has given Donatella Versace’s designs even more va-va-voom
120 YEARS: FUTURE
86 A CUT ABOVE
From space exploration to glacier preservation, the story of Swarovski’s international initiatives continues to unfold
88 WAYS TO GLOW
On trend for spring/summer 2015: artful appliqué, fantastical fabric and divine crystal-encrusted detailing
98 MAKING WAVES
Martin Francis has designed superyachts for 50 years, but creating the Swarovski Surface Collection ‘blew his mind’
102 FREEZE FRAME
How a photographic project supported by Swarovski is helping to preserve for posterity the pristine Austrian Alps
106 IN THE SPOTLIGHT
The latest crystal shapes, colors and effects from Swarovski
112 SWAROVSKI STOCKISTS
Store and concession locations, and company contact details around the world
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From top: Hand-painted dress with pearl and beaded net, iridescent sequins and Swarovski crystals by Rodarte; Alexander McQueen at work backstage; Apolonia necklace by Shourouk
LEADING LIGHT Artist Kyle Bean’s 120th-anniversary tribute to Swarovski
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PREVIOUS PAGE AND COVER IMAGE: RORY VAN MILLINGEN; © 2012 JAMES BALOG, EXTREME ICE SURVEY; © 2015 DISNEY. THIS PAGE: ELLE MALIARCHYK; CLAIRE ROBERTSON; KATE JACKLING
This season, jewelry designers have found inspiration in nature’s unexpectedly intricate patterns
120 Celebrating
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ne hundred and twenty years is a long time. A long time to keep innovating, developing, striving for the best. But that is what we have been doing here at Swarovski, and this year, 2015, we are celebrating a tireless quest that has taken more than a century. This edition of Salt is dedicated to exploring Swarovski’s long journey. It started, as we explain in our Past section, as the dream of a 19th-century Bohemian entrepreneur, Daniel Swarovski, who set up shop in a picturesque valley in the Austrian Tyrol because of its plentiful supply of running water. Today, Swarovski is still there, in the same fresh, clean, inspiring natural location, but now it is a global enterprise, collaborating with the world’s finest artists, artisans and designers in an array of creative disciplines, as we explore in the issue’s Present section. The journey, however, like all great journeys, is ongoing. In our last section, Future, we take the opportunity not just to look back, but also to peer into a crystal ball to speculate about our upcoming projects, such as our investigations into interplanetary travel and how we can monitor our precious earthly resources.
The story of Swarovski is, above all, one of collaboration. Daniel Swarovski’s determination to create the finest crystals in the world has helped fashion and jewelry designers from Coco Chanel, Christian Dior and Balenciaga to Alexander McQueen, Giorgio Armani and Jean Paul Gaultier to fulfill their vision; working with some of our greatest artists and creative minds has resulted in the development of astonishing furniture, lighting and artworks; Swarovski crystals have played a role in some of Hollywood’s most memorable cinematic moments and illuminated its most iconic stars; and that very same show-stopping quality of glamour is there in abundance in our relationships with the stage and catwalk – from Victoria’s Secret Angels to the legendary spectacle at the Moulin Rouge. It is Donatella Versace who says, in this edition, that ‘Swarovski crystal adds instant impact’. And, in the end, this is perhaps our most important legacy. Wherever Swarovski crystals are used, they bring light, sparkle and drama – something that, 120 years on, would no doubt thrill the Bohemian who started it all.
NADJA SWAROVSKI AND MARKUS LANGES-SWAROVSKI Members of the Swarovski Executive Board
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CONTRIBUTORS
BRONWYN COSGRAVE Writer
KATE JACKLING Photographer
NATALIE RIGG Writer
ELLE MULIARCHYK Photographer
Bronwyn Cosgrave is a multidisciplinary fashion professional. She has written four books, including Vogue On: Coco Chanel, and is also the curator of the Barbican’s exhibition Designing 007: Fifty Y ears of Bond Style, which opens at the Fernán Gómez Centro Cultural de la Villa in Madrid in May 2015.
Kate Jackling has a technical knowledge gained from many years of large-format photography, and an elegant still-life style. She is passionate about exploring shape and texture. She has contributed to AnOther, The New York Times and Wallpaper and her clients include Jo Malone, Maiyet and Stella McCartney.
Natalie Rigg writes about fashion, art, music and culture for a variety of publications, including Marie Claire, Porter, Glamour, Dazed & Confused, Twin, Wonderland and The Independent. She has also penned online features for T: The New York Times Style, The Edit, Interview and American Vogue.
Elle Meliarchyk delights in exploring our relationship with appearance through her work, which has so far encompassed everything from guerilla-style shoots with models to elaborate Hollywood production sets with A-list stars such as Beyoncé and Lady Gaga. Her magazine work includes Love, W, Interview and Pop.
ROBERT RYAN Writer
NATASHA FRASER-CAVASSONI Writer Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni writes for Vogue and Vanity Fair and pens a monthly ‘letter from Paris’ for Marie Claire Style, Japan. Her books include Tino Zervudachi: A Portfolio, Chanel for Assouline’s fashion series and a biography of the Academy Awardwinning movie producer Sam Spiegel.
KYLE BEAN Illustrator
KASIA BOBULA Photographer
Kyle Bean is an illustrator, art director and artist. He specialises in creating playful, concept-driven work for a variety of editorial and commercial clients as well as striking installations for fashion brands and events. His work is characterized by a whimsical reappropriation of everyday materials.
Kasia Bobula specializes in documentary photography and regularly shoots backstage at both the ready-to-wear and haute-couture shows. She contributes to magazines such as AnOther, T: The NewYork Times Style and Apartamento and has worked for J Crew, Alexander McQueen and Burberry, among others.
Robert Ryan graduated with an MSc in environmental pollution science before going on to earn a living as a novelist and journalist. He now writes for The Times and The Sunday Times, and collaborates with jazz trumpeter Guy Barker on various projects. His latest novel, A Study in Murder, is a thriller starring Dr Watson.
SHOW MEDIA Editor-in-Chief Peter Howarth Creative Director Ian Pendleton Editorial Director Joanne Glasbey Managing Editor Abby Rawlinson Art Director Dominic Murray-Bell Designers Jo Murray-Bell, Elizabeth Pollard Acting Chief Copy Editor Gill Wing Copy Editors Nicky Gyopari, Mary O’Sullivan, Katie Wyartt Picture Director Juliette Hedoin Deputy Picture Editor Jamie Spence Show Media, Ground Floor, 1-2 Ravey Street, London EC2A 4QP +44 (0)20 3222 0101 info@showmedialondon.com; showmedialondon.com
SWAROVSKI CORPOR ATE COMMUNICATIONS & DESIGN SERVICES* Member of the Executive Board Nadja Swarovski Creative Director David Lane Editorial Content Director Saskia Sissons Head of Communications Myriam Coudoux Marketing & Corporate Communications Manager Nina Baumann *From January 2015, CC&DS will be known as Corporate Branding & Communication
SWAROVSKI PROFESSIONAL Executive Vice President Marketing Christoph Kargruber Senior Communications Manager Carolin Wegerer PR Manager Giulia Valentini Salt is published in Chinese, English and Japanese. Translation by Etymax; etymax.com Color reproduction by FMG; groupfmg.com. Printing by Samson Druck GMBH
Salt is published on behalf of Swarovski AG, Droeschistraße 15, 9495 Triesen, Principality of Liechtenstein, by Show Media. © 2015 Swarovski AG. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner
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1. Anne Hathaway wears a stunning halter-neck Gucci ‘armor’ gown with a striking crystal-encrusted bodice at the 86th Academy Awards. 2. Kylie Minogue on stage in Liverpool, England, in 2014 – one of the dates on her worldwide Kiss Me Once tour – sporting a sassy Dolce & Gabbana dress and complementary fascinator, both studded with crystals.
4. Alicia Keys in a plunging purple Giorgio Armani Privé gown featuring crystallized detailing, at the 56th Grammy Awards, where she won Best R & B Album for Girl On Fire.
7. Blue is the Warmest Color actress Adèle Exarchopoulos at the 71st Golden Globe Awards, in a refined Miu Miu dress in the appropriate hue, enhanced with Swarovski crystals.
5. Isla Fisher at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, in Oscar de la Renta, carrying a Salvatore Ferragamo clutch liberally adorned with Swarovski crystals.
8. Roberto Bolle, in a crystal-encrusted Dolce & Gabbana suit (and matching shoes), with Monica Bellucci, attending the Charles James: Beyond Fashion Costume Institute Gala at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
6. At the glittering premiere of Grace of Monaco at the Shanghai Film Festival, the titular star, Nicole Kidman, was a regal presence in crystalembroidered Giorgio Armani Privé.
3. Amy Adams at the 20th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, wearing a one-shouldered Antonio Berardi gown offset by an exquisitely embellished belt.
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9. The ever-elegant Cate Blanchett in Giorgio Armani Privé with crystal detail at the 67th Cannes Film Festival.
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10 Beyoncé, during her Mrs Carter tour, wearing a cut-away minidress and dazzling crystal-strung net gown.
14. Shoe designer and Swarovski collaborator Charlotte Olympia, renowned for her crystal-encrusted footwear collections, at the ANDAM Fashion Award 2014 ceremony.
11. Heidi Klum in a revealing Armani Privé gown sprinkled with crystals at the 40th People’s Choice Awards.
15. Zoe Saldana wearing Dior and sporting an Atelier Swarovski ring at the opening party of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Hollywood Costume exhibition.
12. Nadja Swarovski, left, with Mario Testino and ANDAM Fashion Award 2014 winner Iris van Herpen at the event’s star-studded celebratory dinner.
16. Coperni Femme design duo Arnaud Vaillant, left, and Sébatien Meyer, right, with style consultant Lolita Jacobs at the ANDAM Fashion Award presentation.
13. Models Devon Windsor, left, and Gigi Hadid wearing crystal-accented Pucci during Paris Fashion Week.
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17. Léa Seydoux in a show-stopping, crystal-accented Miu Miu gown at the 2014 British Fashion Awards, looking every bit the Hollywood screen siren. 18. Alice Taglioni at the Cannes Film Festival 2014, wearing a glamorous silver Giorgio Armani Privé blouse intricately woven with sequins and Swarovski crystals, and a long silk skirt. 19. Models, from left, Kati Nescher, Daria Strokous and Aymeline Valade in gowns embroidered with twinkling crystals at the ANDAM Fashion Award ceremony, supported by Swarovski.
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TALENT SPOTTING ↑ The very best in innovative design was celebrated in July 2014 at the annual International Talent Support (ITS) Awards. A contest designed to give visibility to promising talents in fashion, accessories, artwork and jewelry, ITS also offers support in the form of financial funding and sought-after industry internships for winners. The theme for this year’s entries was Lucid Dreams, and competition was fierce for the prestigious Jewelry Award, sponsored by Swarovski. Joint winners Noriko Nakazato and Lior Shulak
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shared the prize of €10,000 and were offered a six-month placement at Swarovski’s headquarters in Austria. Last year’s winner, Lili Colley, was present at the awards ceremony to see this year’s proud finalists, and an introduction by Swarovski to one of the judges, designer Manish Arora, proved worthwhile – an impressed Arora invited Colley to collaborate with him to design the hats and jewelry for his spring/summer 2015 fashion show in Paris. The resulting collection was an array of pretty pastels offset with iridescent embellishments.
T H E CU T JEAN GENIE ↓ While jeans fashions may come and go, denim never dates. And now, thanks to a competition arranged by ISKO, the largest producer of the fabric in the world, its longevity is further assured. The annual i-SKOOL Awards sees 100 students from top international fashion schools competing for monetary prizes and coveted internships, thereby encouraging both aspiring designers and established producers to raise their game. Held in Berlin last July, the 2014 competition required entrants to design five denim outfits for each of four categories: authentic, fashion, future and recycling. For the first time, there was also a special ‘valuable’ category, in which students could unleash their creativity through the use of crystals to compete for the prestigious Swarovski prize. Congratulations go to Ilaria Marianna Tomasella from Istituto Marangoni – she scooped the award for her embellished belted coat-dress combining crystals and embroidery. In an eye-catching 3D effect, the colored chatons appeared to flow from the garment’s seams.
PIXELFORMULA.COM
SPARKLING CHRISTMAS ↑ Beijing had a magical makeover at Christmas, when Galeries Lafayette and Swarovski joined forces to create eight glittering window displays, three striking pop-up boutiques and a unique installation at the entrance of the store. In addition, 45 local and international brands and designers created exclusive limited editions of pieces for retail during the holiday season.
STEP IT UP ← Comfort and crystals combined last season, when a collaboration between Ugg and Swarovski was launched in selected Swarovski stores. Bling It On is a bespoke service that allows customers to personalize their new Uggs at the time of purchase with an eye-catching crystal-encrusted design. There are numerous patterns to choose from, including letters, numbers and location-inspired motifs, giving Ugg’s many fans across the world added bling in their step.
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BEST FOOT
SISTERS MARYAM AND MARJAN MALAKPOUR ARE THE DESIGNERS BEHIND CHIC, CONTEMPORARY FOOTWEAR
BRAND NEWBARK, WHOSE COVETED FLATS FOR NEXT SEASON BENEFIT FROM A BURST OF SWAROVSKI CRYSTALS WORDS ELISA ANNISS
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aryam Malakpour marvels at how she once ran around the streets of Paris, dashing from show to show in skyscraper heels six inches high. ‘Now, I’m more about being comfortable and going from the school drop-off to a design meeting without having to change shoes,’ she explains. Judging by the resounding popularity of NewbarK, the cult low-heeled shoe label she founded with her sister Marjan back in 2009, there are plenty of other devotees of flat footwear too, among them celebrities such as Ashley Olsen, Rosie HuntingtonWhiteley, Heidi Klum, Courtney Cox, Jamie Bochert and Halle Berry. Bored with the then-ubiquitous ballerina pumps and in search of alternatives, the siblings started NewbarK with a luxe slipper, the silhouette of which was loosely based on the traditional North African babouche. Their idea was to create chic, comfortable shoes in season-less year-round colors such as red, gold or silver leather that could be worn ‘at home, on set or when traveling’.
“We have a very minimalist aesthetic, so embellishment makes it extra-special”
Net-A-Porter was one of the first global portals to snap up their distinctive wares. ‘Natalie Massenet loved our concept and launched our original design – and it was an amazing success.’ Swarovski was another early adopter, working with NewbarK for the first time for autumn 2011 on two striking loafer designs: Audrey, a completely flat black suede style featuring a striking wolf motif in Swarovski crystals, and Juliette, a black crystal-encrusted leather shoe with a low heel.
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Swarovski and NewbarK continue to collaborate. ‘We love working with Swarovski. Our brand has a very minimalist aesthetic, so embellishment makes it extraspecial,’ continues Malakpour, adding that she loves the burst of crystals on the Jacks shoe they jointly created for spring 2015. Before NewbarK, the LA-based sisters worked in a star-studded world. Malakpour notched up two decades styling and consulting for brands and individuals, including Keith Richards, Heidi Klum and Courtney Cox, while her sister worked with Cher, David Bowie, Shirley Manson and The Strokes. They maintain their celebrity connections with NewbarK Presents, their cinematic collaborations with artists and visionaries, which they screen at their seasonal presentations. The duo is both enterprising and unconventional. Take, for instance, the manufacture of their shoes. While other designers might travel far and wide, seeking out production facilities in Spain and Italy, NewbarK footwear is made much closer to home, at four factories in Los Angeles, including one that also produces footwear for firemen and policemen. ‘Southern California is known for denim, surfwear and T-shirt brands, yet our shoes were among the first luxury leather goods to be made in LA.’ Since its launch, NewbarK has expanded its offer to nine styles. Including slip-on pool slides, T-strap flats and funky boots, the cool designs that first got the brand noticed are still earning it acclaim. There’s even some height in the collection, thanks to the introduction of a super-light, comfy wedge. And the new Melanie loafer has a chunky, Seventies-style, rock-star heel and comes in a range of eye-catching colors. ‘It has real attitude,’ says Malakpour. There is also a range of handbags, totes and pouches. So, with its wares now stocked at more than 60 stores internationally, what’s next for NewbarK? Apart from a flagship store and a line of homewares, Malakpour has her sights set on menswear. ‘We really should do it – we’re asked for it all the time,’ she says. No doubt the brand’s chic, clean, hard-edged design aesthetic, already so much in step with women’s style, will be in evidence if they do.
ROGER DAVIES/TRUNK ARCHIVE
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SOLE SISTERS Opposite from top: NewbarK Clash Swarovski split-sole kidskin and calfskin suede shoes; NewbarK Jack Swarovski split-sole nubuck shoes. Above: The Malakpour siblings in their studio
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T H E CU T A BRAND-NEW WORLD → With Swarovski marking its 120th anniversary and Swarovski Crystal Worlds commemorating two decades, 2015 is set to be a year of festivities for the company. To celebrate both these landmarks, Swarovski Crystal Worlds is currently undergoing a major redesign. Having been opened in 1995 in Wattens, Austria, to mark the centennial of the company’s founding, it has been expanded and improved,
and all will be unveiled in May 2015. The new attraction will have a host of extra exciting elements – these include a store, a restaurant, and a children’s playground. In its extended landscape, the famous Giant will be bigger and better, and the Crystal Cloud (pictured) – a striking installation comprising 600,000 crystals floating above a black mirror pool, evoking a galaxy of twinkling stars suspended in a night sky – will have pride of place.
ALLESANDRO ANTONINI
COVER STARS ↓ Launched at New York Fashion Week in September, the new limited-edition Samsung Galaxy Note 4 cover by Swarovski features no fewer than 4,000 stunning crystals. Available in Sunset Gold, Cosmic Silver and Smoky Purple (pictured), the cover brought together Samsung, the global leader in technology, and Swarovski, the global leader in cut crystals, to create a show-stopping accessory.
CRYSTAL COUTURE Swarovski crystals added sparkle to the runways of Luigi Borbone, Sarli Couture (pictured) and Renato Balestra at the AltaRomaAltaModa autumn/winter 2014–15 shows.
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INNER LIGHT ← Chinese brand Yooh has found an innovative way to bring sparkle to interiors – adding a little of what it calls ‘space jewelry’. By integrating Swarovski crystals into decorative materials such as natural marble, Yooh is able to create a range of bespoke shimmering interiors. One recent example was in real-estate development company Shimao’s residential project West Lake, in Hangzhou, where crystal marble was used to add a touch of glamour to the luxurious properties.
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T H E CU T A NEW ICE AGE ← Art and science combined once again at Design Miami’s annual show in December, as Swarovski unveiled its Thinning Ice project. A collaboration between renowned architect Jeanne Gang and award-winning filmmaker and nature photographer James Balog, the installation was an immersive experience designed to draw public attention to the melting polar ice caps. While suitably ‘frozen’ Swarovski crystals created the illusion of cracked and swiftly disappearing ice, a smooth, glacier-like table in the center was punctured with holes to evoke the crystalline patterns created by ice as it thaws. Balog’s photography and
video footage of the world’s glaciers also lined the walls, surrounding visitors with the extraordinary visual effects of climate change. The first solo female designer Swarovski has worked with for Design Miami, Gang was chosen for her commitment to addressing pressing environmental issues in her work. In the same way, Balog is known for his Extreme Ice Survey – a partnership with Swarovski that saw him document the shrinking of the Stubai glacier in the Austrian Alps over a three-year period. Together, Swarovski, Gang and Balog produced a captivating installation for Design Miami visitors, which was as illuminating as it was impressive.
SEVENTH HEAVEN ← Seven really was the lucky number for designer Manav Gangwani, who this season staged the biggest-ever show by an Indian couturier. ‘Seven’ was the result of a year-long hiatus from the industry, during which Gangwani embarked on a voyage of self-discovery. His new collection is influenced by his seven key virtues, translated into seven colors: pink for hope, yellow for faith, lavender for forgiveness, ivory for honesty, aqua for strength, gold for courage and green for loyalty. Strikingly embellished with Swarovski crystals, Basra pearls from the Persian Gulf and a traditional Indian embroidery known as Chikankari, the line is the first to appear under the brand’s new MG crest, which incorporates representations of the seven virtues.
STEVE BENISTY; MANAV GANGWANI; GULSHAN SACHDEVA
Delighted with this collaboration, Vivek Ramabhadran, Managing Director of Swarovski India, says that Swarovski crystals are the most important resource used by Indian couturiers for a decade, bringing luxurious glamour to designs. ‘Gangwani continues to surprise and scintillate, and inspires a whole new world of possibilities,’ he says.
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THE XX FACTOR The Swarovski Foundation is tackling the issues that prevent women worldwide from achieving their potential, and has their empowerment at the very top of its agenda WORDS TAMSIN CRIMMENS ILLUSTR ATION K AROLIN SCHNOOR
From cultural icons, Hollywood actresses and pop stars to academics, writers and campaigners, there is no shortage of high-profile women currently beating the drum for gender equality. Triumphant moments, such as Beyoncé proudly proclaiming herself a feminist at the MTV Video Music Awards or actress Emma Watson’s impassioned plea for men to take up the cause with the HeForShe campaign, are evidence that a powerful cultural shift is taking place. However, although giant strides forward are being taken, achieving fairness between the sexes requires women’s historic position as an economic underclass to be challenged. Encouragingly, there are signs that this is in the process of happening, that it’s no longer a man’s world. Global studies have found that companies with large numbers of female employees outperform their competitors, and research by Microsoft reveals that, by 2020, women are likely to have more disposable income than men.
of international experts on human rights, economics, law and journalism, recently agreed to support two gender-equality projects. Through its partnership with Women for Women International (WfWI), a charity helping marginalized women in countries affected by war and conflict, The Foundation aims to address the problems of women who have the drive and ambition to become successful but are held back by lack of access to skills, networks, technology and capital.
their children, too.’ Spearheaded by Nest, a charity based in New York that partners with the world’s most promising artisans to build sustainable businesses, The Foundation is also supporting a project aiming to revive the 500-year-old silk-weaving tradition in the Indian city of Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges. An investment of €45,000 will enable a state-of-theart workspace designed by architect David Adjaye to be built, providing weavers access to clean water, social services and dedicated communal spaces.
A billion women have the potential to enter the workforce in the next decade. The most forwardthinking brands know that unlocking their potential as leaders, employers and entrepreneurs isn’t just about good PR or ticking the box for corporate social responsibility – it makes sound business sense too. Yet many obstacles currently stand in the way of longterm, sustainable societal change.
The Foundation has made available a grant of €75,000 to aid WfWI’s work in Nigeria. Over the next three years, 750 women will be helped to transform their lives by participating in a year-long holistic training program to build income-generating skills, learn their rights, improve their health and wellbeing, and connect to support networks.
Investment of this kind is vital, but Swarovski is aware that brands must also practise what they preach within their own organization. That is why, as part of its work with WfWI, individual employees are being matched with ‘sisters’ in Nigeria, offering a unique chance to build relationships by exchanging letters.
As a brand both driven by women – its workforce is 70 per cent female – and loved by them, Swarovski has a clear commitment to female empowerment. That is one reason why the Swarovski Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm, is focusing specifically on issues of women’s wellbeing. An external board of trustees, chaired by Nadja Swarovski and made up
As women entrepreneurs are known ‘multipliers’ – research by the World Bank shows they reinvest an average of 90 per cent of their income in their families – this kind of work is particularly impactful, as Brita Fernandez Schmidt, executive director of WfWI, notes: ‘I’m so grateful to Swarovski for its support. We know that, by helping women, we are helping
In March 2014, Swarovski became a signatory of the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles, which offer guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. With such an avowed commitment to equality running through the brand, Swarovski is certainly playing its part in ensuring the future is female.
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SWAROVSKI GOES TO THE BALL → Thanks to Swarovski, Cinderella’s glass slipper takes center stage in Hollywood’s latest romantic offering. Set for release in March, the live-action remake of the classic fairy tale features a star-studded cast, including Helena Bonham Carter and Cate Blanchett, with Downton Abbey’s Lily James in the title role. Designed by Academy Award-winning costume designer Sandy Powell and produced by Swarovski, the slippers are as pivotal to the plot as they were in the original Brothers Grimm story. The exquisite shoes feature 221 crystal facets and took a team of eight 150 hours to make. They are complemented by the 1.7 million crystals that accent props, costumes and jewelry, including Cinderella’s breathtaking ballgown and the Fairy Godmother’s wand. ‘For me, Swarovski crystals are the key creative ingredient to add sparkle, depth and color to my costumes,’ says Powell. ‘Cinderella’s the ultimate fairy tale, and I couldn’t imagine having designed the costumes without the contribution of Swarovski. Its involvement has added the essential elements of glamour and enchantment necessary to bring the characters to life in a magical way.’
© 2015 DISNEY
Cinderella has also provided the inspiration for Atelier Swarovski’s latest collection, which took its cue from the character of the stepmother, played by Blanchett. Designed by Sandy Powell, each of the four pieces uses Swarovski crystals to add the touch of otherworldliness befitting this collection. Cinderella is in cinemas from March 27
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ALAMY; GETTY IMAGES; WARNER BROS PICTURES
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE → High fashion came to the Tyrolean hills as Chanel staged its Métiers d’Art Paris-Salzburg 2015 show at the Leopoldskron Castle in Austria. Famous for being home to the Von Trapp family in the 1965 film The Sound of Music, the castle proved the perfect setting for Karl Lagerfeld’s distinctly Austrian collection, featuring alpine tableaux, edelweisses and, of course, Swarovski crystals.
OUT OF THIS WORLD → Swarovski has enjoyed a relationship with the silver screen for more than 80 years, and 2015 will be no different, with crystals making an appearance in Jupiter Ascending. This sci-fi film, directed by visionary siblings the Wachowskis, follows the fortunes of Russian immigrant Jupiter Jones, who learns that her unique genetic make-up means she is destined for an extraordinary inheritance that could alter the balance of the entire cosmos. Many of the striking costumes created by renowned The Matrix designer Kym Barrett – including Jupiter’s own show-stopping 3-D headpiece – are embellished with Swarovski crystals. With an all-star line-up including Eddie Redmayne, Douglas Booth, Channing Tatum and Sean Bean, and Mila Kunis in the lead role, this futuristic story is the perfect showcase for the creative power of crystal.
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Clockwise from top left: Peter Pilotto; Marques Almeida; Ashley Williams; Peter Pilotto; Huishan Zhang; Huishan Zhang; Marques Almeida; Huishan Zhang; Mary Katrantzou
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JASON LLOYD-EVANS; IMAXTREE.COM; MATT LEVER; SONNY VANDEVELDE
London’s shows were all about surface texture, with swirling embroidery, Swarovski crystals and even perspex set against a backdrop of bold rainbow colors or sophisticated black
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Italian glamour was in full force on the Milan runway, where both pretty, shimmering pastels and sumptuous, jewel-colored brocades were bursting with crystal embellishment
Clockwise from top left: Dolce & Gabbana; Dolce & Gabbana; Giorgio Armani; Roberto Cavalli (inset); Fendi; Versace; Fendi; Giorgio Armani; Versace
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Clockwise from top left: Chanel; Christian Wijnants; Chanel; Masha Ma; Jean Paul Gaultier; Damir Doma; Jean Paul Gaultier; Iris van Herpen
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IMAXTREE.COM; GREG KESSLER; JASON LLOYD-EVANS
A sense of theatricality characterized the Paris shows, with Eighties-era Madonna-inspired styling, haute-couture chain mail and showstopping crystallized accessories all making an appearance on the catwalk
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Regal splendor ruled the runway in New York, where hues of cool blue, pale gray, dusky purple and iridescent white were topped with a frosting of Swarovski crystals and subtle floral prints graced grown-up dresses
Clockwise from top left: Rodarte; Wes Gordon; Misha Nonoo; Prabel Gurung; Rodarte; Tim Coppens; Creatures; Prabal Gurung
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SNAKE CHARMER
Serpent, Roberto Cavalli’s new collaboration with Swarovski for Cadenzza, is a gorgeous study in female sensuality WORDS GEORGIE L ANE- GODFREY
It is this trademark glamour that Cavalli has successfully channeled into his latest line for Cadenzza. A luxurious eight-piece collection, Serpent takes the house’s famous reptilian symbol as the basis for its inspiration. Each gold-plated piece features a snake sensually entwining its body around the loops of the metal: the necklace depicts one slithering up the pendant, jaws enclosed around the chain, while the ring is formed in a sinuous, serpentine coil. The result is a powerful jewelry collection that is guaranteed to make a statement, with every individual piece hinting at the underlying wild nature of its wearer.
Look back to Ancient Greece and you’ll see Dionysus, the god of wine and fecundity, adorned with a crown of serpents. In India, the snake goddess Manasa brings fertility, prosperity and a healing cure for poison. Depicted as a woman covered in snakes, she is protective of her followers but terrible to her enemies – a powerful female deity who, like her animal manifestation, demands reverence and respect.
all his designs. As a result, he has garnered a celebrity following of strong, beautiful and talented women, ranging from Beyoncé and Victoria Beckham to Cindy Crawford and Charlize Theron.
It is hardly surprising, then, that Roberto Cavalli should have chosen the serpent as the signature motif for his brand. Renowned for his fearlessly sensual designs, the Florentine designer’s clothes are glamorous and audacious, featuring eye-catchingly exotic and geometric prints that reflect the full force of a woman’s sexuality. He famously once said, ‘excess is success’ – a maxim abundantly evident in
Unapologetically outrageous, Roberto Cavalli has been one of Italy’s sartorial powerhouses since the Seventies. Having sought a location that would embody his European jet-set look, he opened his first boutique in 1972 in Saint-Tropez, on the perennially chic French Riviera. Constantly pushing the boundaries of design, he became famous for his use of leopard print, turning to nature for a signature look that continues to characterize his collections today.
ENTWINED GLAMOUR From top: Necklaces in Roberto Cavalli’s Serpent collection, featuring Swarovski crystals; the designer; Serpent collection earrings
Later, his innovative jeans featuring a sand-blasted look, as well as intarsia leather, opulent brocade and sparkling embellishments, would once again catapult him into the limelight. Now, after more than 40 years in the industry, Cavalli can still delight and excite the fashion world with his instantly recognizable designs exuding an unmistakably Italian glamour.
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Each serpent is lavishly adorned with shimmering Swarovski crystals in both classically clear and amethyst tones, reflecting the seasonal colors that featured in Cavalli’s spring/summer 2015 catwalk. With each crystal having been mounted using specialist diamond-setting techniques, this statement collection is as impressively durable as it is daring, showcasing the exceptional craftsmanship that has long been associated with the Swarovski brand. As a result, each piece in the collection is truly a wearable work of art, destined to be the adornment of choice for savvy, confident, fashion-forward women in every corner of the modern world.
PATRICK DEMARCHELIER/TRUNK ARCHIVE
Danger. Power. Seduction. The serpent has long been a symbol of primal energy – a primordial life force beyond the control of man. Following the eternal circle of life, it can shed its skin, casting off its old self in a powerful representation of rebirth and new life. This remarkable reptilian capability has come to represent healing, fertility and immortality across the world.
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LIGHT VISION
No challenge appears insurmountable for Swarovski and its lighting specialist Swareflex – not even illuminating the world’s largest clock in the sacred city that is the focal point of Islam WORDS HENRY FARRAR- HOCKLEY
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rchitecture has ever been a medium preoccupied with the pursuit of height – an eternal exercise in vertical oneupmanship that, through unstinting human ingenuity and hard toil, has seen the construction of successively taller and more remarkable edifices rising up throughout history, from the stone-block simplicity of the Great Pyramid of Giza to the Art Deco splendor of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan. At 601m high, the Mecca Clock Tower in Saudi Arabia is not the tallest man-made structure in the modern world (that accolade belongs to the Burj Khalifa in the neighboring United Arab Emirates); in fact, later this year, it will no longer even be the second-tallest of its ilk, when the serpentine Gensler-designed Shanghai Tower is completed in China. Yet it is far from being a building short on superlatives, holding as it does more than 30 world records related to its sheer scale. It dwarfs St Stephen’s Tower, which houses Big Ben (once the largest four-faced clock in the world), with dials more than five times greater in area. Its face measures an astonishing 43m in diameter, and it is decorated with more than 98 million glass mosaic tiles, each finished in 24ct gold leaf. Nor is this a structure without a broader purpose beyond the mere boundaries of human endeavor, for it overlooks the site of Kaaba, the most sacred location in the Islamic world – the precise point to which all Muslims face to perform their salat, or prayers. Around 20 million Muslims process each year to the Masjid al-Haram mosque in which the cube-shaped Kaaba resides to complete the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages; thus, the Clock Tower acts as a gargantuan call to prayer, a shining super-structure required to be both visible and audible from outside the city, literally around the clock.
RISE AND SHINE Opposite and above: Saudi Arabia’s Mecca Clock Tower is both visible and audible from far and wide. Below: One of Swareflex’s bespoke crystal-glass optics, 618,000 of which adorn the LED-studded tower
To ensure it could be seen far and wide, come rain or shine, the project’s German architects, SL Rasch, called on Swarovski – specifically Swareflex, a brand within Swarovski specializing in LED lighting solutions
– to provide crystal optics to withstand environmental factors such as fluctuating temperatures, UV damage and abrasion from sandstorms. Swareflex’s innovative solution was the manufacture of 618,000 bespoke, domed and chemically hardened crystal optics, each painstakingly integrated into the 70m by 11m LED media panels that adorn each side of the tower. This allows pilgrims to read the vast, scrolling multimedia displays day or night at distances of up to 8km. As for its sonic credentials, its 160 speaker units – each weighing approximately 200kg – create a total acoustic output of over 160 decibels, guaranteeing the muezzin’s summons can be heard up to 7km away. It rises out of the 1.7-million-square-meter Abraj al-Bait – a retail, hotel and residential complex central to the long-term expansion plans of the Ministry of the Hajj – and features more than two million LEDs. A feat of 21st-century engineering without equal, this glittering edifice is a thoroughly contemporary approach to the perpetuation of an ancient faith.
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Gallery and the Venice Architecture Biennale, but the site FIAC had acquired in France’s Jardin des Plantes offered intriguing possibilities. Under the stewardship of curator Gaël Charbau, Swarovski and FIAC invited artists to submit ideas for a site-specific piece. Charbau had no idea what to expect. ‘We were waiting for something that would fit with the garden, rather than sit outside it,’ he says. And Marcel won. He devised a work that played on the name of the location for the piece. Rosée (‘dew’ in English) is elegantly simple; it is as if an enormous spider has woven its web above the roses. Threaded onto the skein are pearls and crystals that resemble water droplets caught in the dawn light. Some strands droop, others are tight. Walk across the fields on any cool morning and look down at your feet or into the hedgerows and you’ll see such a sight in miniature, but here, the web is high above your head. The location was a challenge, says Charbau. ‘You have to interact with the public, and to try to be more ‘interesting’ than all this beautiful nature around you. Marcel’s project is not fighting with its environment but trying to be a part of it. The project is very poetic, and also very delicate. In fact, if you’re not careful, you can walk around it without even seeing it.’
WEB OF INTRIGUE Playing with perceptions of nature, Swarovski’s latest artistic collaboration has produced a piece that is vast yet delicate, and celebrates the fleeting beauty of the dawn light WORDS MICHAEL PRODGER
Demonstrating the daring and innovation for which he is known, the artist wanted to create some 300 perfect, oversized dewdrops for the piece, each in the slightly distended shape of a real water droplet hanging on a thread. Working with Swarovski’s team in Wattens and using 3D computer software, he designed an entirely new shape of crystal. Although, as with much of Marcel’s work, Rosée plays with the viewer’s perception of nature, there is an oldfashioned Romanticism at work here, in which the natural world is a place of mystery eliciting both awe and delight. While it is playful and thought-provoking, it is above all breathtakingly beautiful.
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idier Marcel likes nature – just not in its natural state. The world as he finds it is not enough on its own. The artist takes trees, rocks and soil and subverts them, unencumbered by scale. His work includes huge, white, papier-mâché boulders and tree trunks shorn of branches and painted in pastel shades. He creates massive wall art from slices of ploughed earth that resemble the bark of an enormous and gnarly tree, rippling fields from carpet, the ‘crops’ being harvested by sunflower-yellow winnowing wheels, and oversized mushrooms radiating light. Viewing his work is like wandering through the dreamscape of a Maxfield Parrish painting with a magnifying glass to your eye. His newest commission, however, reveals a delicacy at odds with its daunting size. As part of its ongoing collaboration with international art institutions, Swarovski has teamed up with Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC) in Paris, having been drawn by its celebrated program of outdoor art. The company had already partnered with Paris’s Palais de Tokyo, London’s Whitechapel
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DEW REGARD Didier Marcel’s Rosée, top, at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, features 300 delicate ‘dewdrops’, above, created from an entirely new crystal shape
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heart & SOLE
In a year in which couture was subversively showcased with trainers, albeit through the unique luxury lens of Karl Lagerfeld, the topic of fashionable modernity has metamorphosed into a key pop-cultural debate. What men and women now want has never been more mutable. Trainers are just a tiny part of the equation, however. At the other end of the footwear spectrum is celebrated designer Alejandro Ingelmo – a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, a two-time nominee for the CFDA Swarovski Award for Accessory Design and a creative who remains on a passionate mission to redefine the notions of modernity and glamour.
ALE JANDRO INGELMO’S COVETABLE FOOTWEAR HAS EARNED HIM A LOYAL FAN BASE, AND HIS SHOW-STOPPING COLLECTION WITH SWAROVSKI EXEMPLIFIES HIS UNIQUE DESIGN APPROACH WORDS K ATIE BARON
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In July 2014, towards the end of his first decade in the industry, Ingelmo made his most significant assault on the notion of contemporaneity to date, thanks to a collaboration with Swarovski that saw him using the company’s pioneering new material, Crystal Fabric. It was a dream of sorts, he says: ‘When I first saw the fabric, I loved the promise of manipulation. I relish working with new materials to test myself. When someone gives you the opportunity to work with something so special, you owe it to them to work really hard to do something different.’
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The result is a series of sparkling, almost architectural yet unusually subtle show-stoppers that are works of art as much as footwear. Seven women’s and two men’s styles were created, but the unique parameters of dealing with the fabric, although a challenge that Ingelmo embraced, meant the number sent into production was restricted to just three designs and 50 pairs, sending their covetability sky-high. Each pair took a full day to stitch – double the time of even his most complicated previous creations – owing to the need to laser-cut the rock-like substance before waxing the edges of each shoe ‘like a belt’. There was, he insists, absolutely no room for error.
SETTING THE PACE Opposite: Two styles from the nine-piece Alejandro Ingelmo Evening capsule collection This page, from top: Actresses Morena Baccarin and Lydia Hearst at the launch party at Château Marmont; party host George Kotsiopoulos, Alejandro Ingelmo and actress Tracee Ellis Ross; the Boomerang sandal; dinner was served under the storied colonnade at the hotel
Rarity aside, the root of the collection’s charm is perhaps Ingelmo’s use of the fabric to play with design and pattern, treating the crystals like building materials to be bent, molded and shaped, rather than treated merely as gems for adornment. In short, the embellishment becomes the core focus of the design, the very heart and soul of the style.
ILLUSTRATION: JAMIE LEE REARDIN; ALEKS KOCEV/BFANYC.COM
While that level of thinking shows Ingelmo is invested in the cerebral rigor and often esoteric development work that lies behind his collections, he is adamant that his designs should not be over-intellectualized by the media. Instead, he pitches his footwear as fantasies to be viewed on a more visceral, intuitive level: pieces that will empower the people who wear them. ‘I’m inspired by strong, working women who can be chic, elegant and sexy but also real power-players in the corporate world,’ he says. ‘My shoes may be glamorous, but they are never just pretty.’ It’s a sentiment Ingelmo attributes partly to his Latin roots, having been born in Miami of Cuban parents: ‘I definitely associate being Latin and coming from a warm climate with the idea of the strong, spirited woman.’ But there’s also the oftenoverlooked influence of his adopted hometown of New York, in particular the vibrant melting pot of his main residence, SoHo: ‘I love soaking up that sense of movement and pace and change.’
“When I first saw the fabric, I loved the promise of manipulation”
While Ingelmo’s shoes are undoubtedly status symbols to those in the know, they remain just on the right side of avant-garde to appeal to those who are happy to be surprised each season, rather than sticking with a recognized formula. It’s that desire for progression, and a preference for surprising even his most ardent fan base that means it’s highly unlikely we’ll see him adopting a high-visibility trademark like his peers any time soon. It also explains why he prefers to switch the format for the launch of each collection: one season it was an art gallery, this season it was a private dinner hosted by stylist George Kotsiopoulos at Château Marmont in Hollywood. I ask Ingelmo where he’s headed next. ‘Who knows where this will take me,’ he replies. And as for who most inspires him, unsurprisingly for a designer set on pushing boundaries, his own figurehead isn’t from the world of footwear or fashion, but the iconic architect Zaha Hadid: ‘Her lines are organic but have this amazing feeling of heightened experience. They also have a sense of peacefulness that I think my designs share – a kind of harmony, logic and balance.’
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what lies BENEATH THE STORY BEHIND THE $6BILLION LINGERIE COMPANY VICTORIA’S SECRET IS
ONE OF GENIUS AND JAW-DROPPING EXTRAVAGANZAS. IN ITS LATEST SHOW, ANGEL WINGS ADORNED WITH 150,000 CRYSTALS LIT UP THE CATWALK, MARKING THE PINNACLE OF A 12-YEAR COLLABORATION WITH SWAROVSKI WORDS JOHNNY DAVIS
When Leslie Wexner paid $1m to buy six Victoria’s Secret stores, his financial advisors told him he was mad. That was in 1982, and those half-dozen stores amounted to the entire business – one that at the time was heading for bankruptcy. But Wexner, now considered one of the legends of American retail, wasn’t one to base his decisions on the predictions of financial advisors – he relied on hunches. Described as ‘a chronic contrarian’, as a boy, the Ohio State native had watched his father toil away in general merchandising for little reward and decided it wasn’t the path for him. However, law school proved uninspiring and a father-son argument led him to open his first shop, aged 26. He called it The Limited, in reference to the narrow range of items it sold. It would eventually go on to usher in America’s massmarket sportswear boom and be cited by Apple’s Steve Jobs for inventing specialty retail, which was a revolutionary idea at the time.
HEAVEN SENT This page: Victoria’s Secret Angel Lily Donaldson on the runway. Opposite, top: Models backstage at the London show – only the second time in the event’s 19-year history it has taken place outside New York. Opposite, below: The trademark flamboyant wings
By his fifties, Wexner was running more than a dozen businesses, including Abercrombie & Fitch. Many of these he would sell off, but he kept Victoria’s Secret. You can see why: by 1984, it was already worth $500m. Today, he owns the three biggest bra labels in the United States: Victoria’s Secret, Pink and La Senza, which together make up 41 per cent of its $13.2bn lingerie market. His next closest rival owns just one per cent. Wexler is now 77, and worth $6.2bn – enough to place him on the Forbes 400.
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Victoria’s Secret began life in 1977 in Palo Alto, California, now famous as an incubator for highprofile tech companies, including Google, Facebook and PayPal, but back then an unremarkable suburb. The brand was named after Queen Victoria: the stores’ dark wood and red velvet interiors offered the promise of excitement cloaked beneath an outer respectability. It had hit on something new: lingerie pitched in the hitherto unchartered space between functional but boring and that reserved for one’s wedding night. During the Seventies and Eighties, the most popular women’s underwear designs were by Fruit Of The Loom and Hanes and purchased in packs of three. Lacy thongs and padded push-up bras were not items to be found on the high street. The introduction of a $3 mail-order catalog made Victoria’s Secret famous across America: within five years, it was accounting for over half the company’s sales. When Wexner took over, he consolidated the business focus towards women, using new colors, patterns and styles that took their cues from European luxury brands. The catalog’s HQ boasted a fake London address, while stores were redesigned to conjure up 19th-century England: out went the dark woods and deep reds, in came floral prints, retro styling and olde-worlde perfume bottles. Wexner figured that if his customers had access to the same kind of sexy, affordable underwear as their cousins across the ocean, where women viewed lovely lingerie as a daily essential, they too would want to wear it every day.
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“It’s one of the biggest shows you can walk in and such an honor for any model”
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‘In an industry where mark-downs have become the norm, the new emphasis is on style and service,’ noted The New York Times of Victoria’s Secret in 1986. By 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that its catalog had grown to become so in demand, it had achieved ‘an almost cult-like following’.
ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE This page: The Angels relax, above, before taking flight on the catwalk wearing exquisite wings, below. Opposite: The spectacular $18,000 Fairy Tale wings, adorned with 150,000 Swarovski crystals, seen here, from top, in close-up and being fitted by designer Serkan Cura onto model Lily Donaldson
Today, the Victoria’s Secret empire commands sales that topped $6.1bn in 2013 and is as famous for its OTT annual catwalk shows and the Victoria’s Secret ‘Angels’ as anything it sells. They originally appeared in a 1997 TV campaign, and included Helena Christensen, Stephanie Seymour and Tyra Banks. They have continued to number the world’s highest-paid models ever since, among them Gisele Bündchen, Heidi Klum and Karlie Kloss. The show started as a low-key experiment in 1995 and resulted in one of the greatest marketing coups of all time. Instead of paying for TV ad space, every year, CBS pays Victoria’s Secret over $1m for the rights to air what amounts to an hour-long promotion. It’s then sold around the world: the spectacle has more viewers than every other fashion show combined.
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It celebrates 20 years in 2015, and last December was held in London – only the second time the show has traveled outside New York. The relocation served only to amplify the global marketing message: 47 models touched down in a branded private Boeing 767 to stage the biggest and most extravagant Victoria’s Secret show yet. Three thousand guests in blacktie piled into the Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre in Kensington: a vast crowd for a runway show, but small change compared to those watching online and on TV. Ed Razek, executive producer of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, reminded guests as they took their seats that a global audience of 500 million was about to tune in: ‘More people will be watching this than any other fashion show combined.’ The London spectacle, beamed to 200 countries, was split into six sections: Gilded Angels, Exotic Traveler, Dream Girl, University Of Pink, Fairy Tale and the grand finale, Angel Ball. It was opened by the Namibian model Behati Prinsloo in gold metallic knee-high boots, followed on the runway by Karlie Kloss wearing a pair of 18ct-gold wings – the most expensive piece ever made by Parisian haute-couture designer Serkan Cura for the brand.
GETTY IMAGES FOR SWAROVSKI; GLEN ALLSOP FOR SWAROVSKI; KASIA BOBULA
Turkish-born Cura also created the Swarovski look for Victoria’s Secret: the handcrafted angel wings worn by the British model Lily Donaldson, comprising more than 150,000 crystals and worth an estimated $18,000. Beyond the catwalk, Swarovski brings glamour to customers of Victoria’s Secret stores too, with a stunning retail collection. These items feature the company’s new, specially created seal, bearing the words ‘Crystals from Swarovski’, which has a unique identification number that distinguishes genuine Swarovski crystals from counterfeits. The Designer Collection combines lace and fine fabrics with crystals, while other items incorporating crystal include the beautiful limited-edition Angel Wing ornament and Angel Wing necklace. The exclusive partnership between Swarovski and Victoria’s Secret dates back to 2002, when the company first provided crystals to adorn the costumes and jewelry of what has become one of the most glamorous events on the fashion calendar. For the 2014 show, Swarovski added sparkle to 29 crystallized runway looks and also loaned a stunning jewelry piece by Bea Valdes from its archive. The Angels strode the runway to the accompaniment of music played live by Ariana Grande, Hozier, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, a photograph of whose I-can’tbelieve-my-luck expression was much circulated on social media. ‘It’s one of the biggest shows you can walk in,’ Swedish model Elsa Hosk told reporters. ‘It’s such an honor for any model to be part of it, because it garners huge publicity for us.’ And, of course, it’s huge publicity for Victoria’s Secret too. With more than 1,000 stores in the United States alone, and overseas expansion taking place as far afield as Poland, Kuwait and Serbia, not to mention the 390 million customers served each year through its catalog, the fancy-underwear juggernaut shows no sign of slowing down just yet.
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Swarovski® is a registered trademark of Swarovski AG. © 2015 D. Swarovski Distribution GmbH
BE INSPIRED FOR TOMORROW ’S TRENDS New cuts, colors, and effects for Spring/Summer 2016
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Innovation has been at the heart of Swarovski since it was founded in 1895. Now, 120 years later, the crystal house remains a family firm with global headquarters and production facilities in its original hometown of Wattens, Austria. In this section, we reflect on the sparkle Swarovski has brought to both stage and screen and celebrate the company’s 15th anniversary of collaborating with sibling duo and fashion-industry favorites Kate and Laura Mulleavy of American label Rodarte
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GLASS ROOTS The late 19th century was a time of extraordinary innovation and experimentation – it’s no wonder Swarovski was founded at a time when the modern world was taking shape WORDS ROBERT RYAN
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PA S T MAKING HISTORY Opposite: Crystal-embellished dress by Christian Dior, 1964. This page, clockwise from far left: The Swarovski factory in Wattens, 1895; founder Daniel Swarovski experimenting in his laboratory, 1905; a picnic for the Wattens cycling association, one of the many sporting associations founded by the company, circa 1912
This story begins, as so many stories on this planet do, with water. One of the simplest, yet most fundamental, elements on earth, water was one of the factors that led a Bohemian entrepreneur called Daniel Swarovski and his partners, Armand Kosman and Franz Weis, to a picturesque valley in the Austrian Tyrol and the small town of Wattens. Water to turn his generators, water to cool his machines and water to eventually wash the product of his enterprise was available in abundance. And so it was there that Daniel would produce the high-quality crystals that still bear his name – and are made at Wattens to this day. The other key to the magic of Swarovski is something you can’t touch or hold, yet which nurtures and enraptures us from birth onwards: light. At the heart of the Swarovski phenomenon is the ability of its crystals to reflect, fracture and bend this electromagnetic radiation to stunning effect. Nothing sparkles like a Swarovski crystal. Quite how Swarovski achieves this spectral brilliance is a secret. Is it the cut? Is it the formula used to coat the crystals? The company, understandably, isn’t saying. It has always
been thus; choosing Wattens also meant Daniel could keep his proprietary methods from the prying eyes of the rival – and inferior – crystal-cutters that were commonplace back home in his native Bohemia. If water and light formed two of the building blocks of Swarovski, the third essential ingredient was science. For Daniel had patented an electrically powered machine – hence his need for hydro energy – that would cut glass with unprecedented accuracy and precision, giving it an ability to process and play with light that rivaled the finest diamonds. The affordable crystals (Daniel never claimed his products were precious stones) were an instant success – and their popularity further increased when he started producing his own ‘flawless’ examples from 1913 onward. He was well on his way to becoming the king of crystal. It was 1895 when the 33-year-old set up shop in Wattens. The 19th century had just half a decade left to run, and already the innovations that would change society forever were waiting in the wings. Daniel Swarovski had been inspired to create his new
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machine after a visit to the first Electrical Exhibition in Vienna in 1883, which highlighted the pioneering work of Werner von Siemens, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, the men who would give us the electric light and the telephone. Also in 1895, over in the United States, a young Henry Ford was experimenting with a self-propelled vehicle he would call the Ford Quadricycle. Otto Lilienthal, meanwhile, was building the glider (with an extra set of small wings at the front) that inspired the Wright brothers. And on May 7 of that year, Russian physicist Alexander Stepanovich Popov presented a paper about a lightning detector he had built, which turned out to double up as a radio receiver. The modern world was beginning to take shape. However, arguably one of the most important events for the Swarovski company took place at the turn of that year, in France, when Auguste and Louis Lumière filmed what would become a sensation: the prosaically named Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station. One of the founding myths of cinema is that the audience at
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the first showing of this 50-second film stampeded towards the rear of the theater, fearful the celluloid train would crush them. It’s probably not true, but one thing is certain: the movies were on their way.
into – to sing ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President’ to JFK featured 10,000 crystals, and one of the star attractions at the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum in Florence is a pair of her red stilettos, covered in Swarovski crystals.
And it was in cinema that Swarovski crystals would find a natural home, starting with The Blue Angel in 1930. Costume designer Adrian Adolph Greenberg would use them in titles such as Marie Antoinette (1938) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). Pivotal movies such as High Society (1956) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), both featuring Edith Head as costume supervisor, had input from Swarovski, and its crystals made Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe sparkle in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). Sandy Powell incorporated them into her costume designs for The YoungVictoria (2009), which won the Academy Award for Best Achievement in Costume Design in 2010. This was the year David Rockwell’s Oscars ceremony curtains were unveiled, featuring more than 100,000 Swarovski crystals and weighing in at three tons.
As a fashion designer, Ferragamo was not alone, of course, in using the crystals. Another important event took place in 1895: the birth of Basque designer Cristóbal Balenciaga, who was one of the first of that generation of couture superstars, along with Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli, to work closely with Swarovski. The company went on to forge close links with Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Prada and, more recently, Alexander McQueen and Viktor&Rolf, among many, many others.
Marilyn Monroe makes several dramatic walk-on appearances in the Swarovski backstory. The sheer, skintight chiffon dress she wore – and had to be sewn
Designers love the fact that the crystals are versatile, offering a range of moods, from sheer razzle-dazzle to sophisticated elegance. Part of the reason for the company’s dominance of the fashion world over more than a century has been the constant stream of innovations from Swarovski, such as the crystaltipped trimmings that could be sewn directly onto a dress; its new Crystal Mesh; the dramatic colorscape of the Aurora Borealis-effect crystal, developed in
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SHEER BRILLIANCE This page, clockwise from top left: Marilyn Monroe, in her iconic crystal-encrusted gown, singing birthday greetings to JFK in 1962; a choker and earrings by Scémama, 1962; a dog brooch by Trifari, 1942
CONDÉ NAST LTD – CECIL BEATON/TRUNK ARCHIVE; IRIS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC 2009
Crystals offer everything, from sheer razzle-dazzle to sophisticated elegance
the mid-Fifties with Christian Dior; and the patented Xilion cut, designed to optimize the brilliance of flatbacked ‘roses’ or diamond-cut ‘chatons’. Beginning in the mid-Sixties, Swarovski also breathed new life into what was once considered a rather fusty feature of domestic and public spaces: the chandelier. The startlingly innovative necklace-like drapes of the Gabriel chandelier at the Palace of Versailles, and the fantastic frozen starbursts at the Metropolitan Opera House totally redefined what a chandelier could be. As we shall see in these pages, Swarovski continues to light up our lives. Over the past 120 years, it has grown to encompass divisions making everything from glass figurines to tunnel-lighting, binoculars to grinders, but, at its heart, Swarovski remains an enterprise dedicated to creating pleasure and beauty from an alchemical mixture of crystal and light. It strives, too, as its founder did, to interact responsibly with its workers, suppliers, customers and the environment. It has certainly come a long way since a man from Bohemia went to Wattens with a secret in his head and ambition in his heart. And the journey isn’t over yet.
SHINING LIGHT This page, clockwise from top left: Coco Chanel in 1937; a necklace by Schreiner, 1950; the Swarovski crystal chandelier at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York; jewelry with a striking aurora borealis effect by Francis Winter for Christian Dior, 1956; and a crystal-encrusted brooch by Pennino Brothers, 1942
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AMERICAN DREAM CALIFORNIAN DESIGNERS AND SWAROVSKI COLLECTIVE MEMBERS KATE AND LAURA MULLEAVY OF RODARTE TAKE AN ELEGANT AND ETHEREAL DIRECTION FOR SPRING/SUMMER 2015 – THEIR 15TH COLLECTION FOR THE CRYSTAL HOUSE PHOTOGR APHER ELLE MULIARCHYK ST YLIST L AUR A JONES
Opposite: Hand-painted net gown with embroidered silk-tulle fringe, iridescent sequins and Swarovski crystals
This page: Hand-painted dress with embroidered, pearl and beaded net, iridescent sequins and Swarovski crystals Opposite: Metalized net and lamĂŠ dress with rib-knit detailing and Swarovski crystals; and embossed lizard-skin shoes
This page: Hand-painted dress with hand-embroidered and macramĂŠ lace, sequins and Swarovski crystals; and embossed lizard-skin shoes Opposite: Hand-painted lamĂŠ dress with hand-embroidered lace, rib-knit details and Swarovski crystals; and embossed crocodile and lizard-skin shoes
Opposite: Corduroy and canvas jacket with hand-embroidered iridescent, burnt-edged sequins and leather-strap detail; iridescent sequin top; embroidered metallized and lace skirt with Swarovski crystals; and embossed python and crocodile-skin shoes This page: Hand-painted dress with hand-embroidered lace, macramé lace, sequins and Swarovski crystals SHOOT PRODUCER Annee Elliot PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS Chris Chandler and Justin Officer STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Abigail Aracansa DIGITAL OPERATOR Stephen Gorme HAIRSTYLIST Luke Chamberlain MAKE-UP ARTIST Michelle Mungcal MANICURIST Kait Mosh at Cloutier Remix MODEL Margarita Pugovka at One Management
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costume
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FORTY YEARS AFTER DIANA VREELAND FIRST EXHIBITED ICONIC WORKS OF GOLDEN-AGE COUTURE AND ESTABLISHED THE COSTUMER’S RIGHTFUL PLACE ON THE RED CARPET, A NEW SHOW ARRIVES IN LOS ANGELES TO CONTINUE HER LEGACY
SAM SHAW/SHAW FAMILY ARCHIVE/REX FEATURES; SNAP/REX FEATURES
WORDS BRONYWN COSGRAVE
MATERIAL WEALTH Opposite: Marlene Dietrich in Angel, wearing a crystal-embellished floor-length gown This page: Marilyn Monroe, with Tom Ewell, in The Seven Year Itch, sporting the iconic silk dress for which she became famous
n 1974, Diana Vreeland was two years into her groundbreaking 17-year tenure as special consultant to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s fabled fashion and dress gallery, the Costume Institute. Thomas Hoving, the Met’s charismatic young director, had charged the former Vogue editor with generating ideas for exhibitions and lending her trademark pizzazz to the storied space. After her first few blockbuster shows, Vreeland turned her back on Parisian haute couture and looked to California for inspiration.
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number that Marilyn Monroe flaunted in The Seven Year Itch and the black-and-white gown Cecil Beaton created for Audrey Hepburn as My Fair Lady’s Eliza Doolittle – forth came the crowds.
‘Hollywood!’ she declared to Hoving, explaining her plan to display a collection of costumes from the movie industry’s Golden Age. Hoving took some convincing, however, asking, ‘Why are you dragging Hollywood into the Met?’ But Vreeland got her way. And as word got around that Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design was presenting an outstanding array of movie-star finery – including the silky white
The current exhibition, Hollywood Costume, which displays extraordinary pieces produced from 1912 to the present day, is curated by Nadoolman Landis and is her riposte to Vreeland’s original showstopper. It opened at the V&A in London in October 2012 and, after a world tour, is now in Los Angeles, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and sponsored by Swarovski.
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Through the nine-month run of Vreeland’s Met show, 800,000 visitors flocked to the Costume Institute, busting the museum’s attendance records more than four times over. Deborah Nadoolman Landis, then a gifted 23-year-old MA student of costume design, was among the hordes.
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BY DESIGN From top: Travis Banton, the chief costume designer at Paramount Pictures, showing sketches to Marlene Dietrich in the Thirties; Diana Vreeland, in 1975, discussing her exhibition for the Costume Institute
her to Whitmore and served as a curator on the show. But, by then, she had already earned her place in the Hollywood firmament. In 1980, she married the acclaimed comedy director, John Landis, with whom she worked and by whom she had two children, including Max Landis, now an upcoming filmmaker, whose first independent feature, Me Him Her, is set for release in 2015. In 1988, after costuming 16 major motion pictures, she received an Oscar nomination for the romantic comedy Coming to America, and, between 2001 and 2007, served two terms as president of the Costume Designers Guild. Through it all, however, the memory of Romantic and Glamorous Hollywood Design loomed large in her mind. Although she officially toiled on Hollywood Costume for five years prior to its original V&A opening, her involvement in it really began back in 1975, when she first met Vreeland, having managed to orchestrate a meeting with her after seeing the former editor’s show. ‘We spent a Sunday together,’ she recalls. ‘From breakfast through lunch to dinner.’ They talked shop. If Vreeland was a fan of Hollywood glamour, Nadoolman Landis was ‘an insider’, who illuminated the costumer’s viewpoint in her show by ‘drilling down’, she says. The astonishing level of detail that highlights each exhibit as a masterpiece is down to her study of her craft at a ‘sub-molecular level,’ and
Where the 1974 spectacle had demonstrated that the craft of masterly 20th-century costumers such as Gilbert Adrian, Travis Banton and Orry-Kelly was as sophisticated and influential as the work of the all-time great Paris couturiers, Nadoolman Landis’s exhibition offers, as she puts it, ‘the next perspective’. By staging a show dedicated to iconic film outfits, Vreeland also bestowed a cultural significance on the garments by recognizing their makers as artists. Hollywood Costume picks up from there and pays tribute to the seminal contribution of these designers to the process of filmmaking. While a costumer’s work is always front and center, once the credits roll, the impact they have on shaping characters and heightening mood is often overlooked, because actors and directors typically receive much of the glory for making a movie. ‘Actors are telling a story and – usually, at least – wearing clothes,’ says Nadoolman Landis. ‘They’re pretending to be other people. But who helps them make that transformation?’ ‘It’s the costume designer,’ answers Damien Whitmore, former director of public affairs and programing at the V&A, and the man who originally commissioned Nadoolman Landis to produce Hollywood Costume in 2006. ‘And the transformation starts during preproduction, in the fitting room.’ Back then, Nadoolman Landis had just received a PhD in the history of design from London’s Royal College of Art. She had studied under cultural historian Sir Christopher Frayling, who recommended
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DRESS PARADE From left: Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love; Hollywood Costume’s Elizabethan display, including Cate Blanchett’s gown for Elizabeth
ALLSTAR; CONDÉ NAST ARCHIVE/CORBIS; EVERETT COLLECTION/REX FEATURES; RICHARD HARBAUGH
her ability to relate its intricacies in a manner that is at once insightful and entertaining. To reveal the intimate working process of her profession, she deployed new technology – with revelatory effects. Pages from scripts are either projected above displays or illuminated on adjacent panels, illustrating the degree to which the costumer relies on the text when gleaning inspiration for a piece. Nadoolman Landis also conducted myriad interviews. On a side panel, amid a jaw-dropping tableau entitled A Royal Romance, incorporating a dozen examples of imperial finery, is a rather candid statement from awardwinning costumer Sandy Powell. It at once relates her experience producing the wardrobe for Shakespeare in Love, and the reason she won the 71st Academy Award for doing so: she had garnered motivation from the essence of the script rather than taking it word for word. ‘My aim was not to create absolutely historically accurate costumes,’ it says, ‘but to use a bit of artistic license. As the script is so fresh and light, I felt that, while keeping it convincing, there was room for the imagination.’ Interviews with other professionals, including Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton and fellow costume designer Colleen Atwood, convey the collaborative method in which screen outfits are rendered: namely, by a director or an actor contributing ideas as to how to shape the look of a character. Subjects are depicted at life-size to allow visitors ‘to feel they are eavesdropping on off-set conversations,’ explains Dinah Casson, who designed the show along with Roger Mann.
COSTUMIERS WERE AS INFLUENTIAL AS THE ALL-TIME GREAT PARIS COUTURIERS Some pieces, however, must speak for themselves, as those responsible for their creation never revealed much about them and are now long gone. Take Hollywood Costume’s opening number: a gilded, crystal-embellished floor-length column dress, jacket and mink-edged wrap, it fitted Marlene Dietrich like a second skin when she portrayed Maria Barker in Ernst Lubitsch’s 1937 comedy-drama Angel, and was the result of a close bond she had established with the studio’s chief costume designer, Travis Banton. ‘Day in, day out they worked,’ recalled Dietrich’s daughter, Maria Riva, in her memoir. ‘My mother could stand for hours without moving a muscle and, as she was perpetually starving herself, such normal things as food, bathroom and rest did not exist while she prepared clothes for a film.’
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Beneath the seams of the antebellum finery that Walter Plunkett produced for Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the Wind is the story of how the film’s producer, David O Selznick, besieged the designer with memos laden with his own sartorial tips. These included binding Leigh’s bust with adhesive tape to plump up her cleavage. ‘Dear Vivien stood patiently while we pushed her breasts together and a fitter strapped adhesive tape to keep them in that uncomfortable position,’ Plunkett later revealed. To convincingly portray a character in Hollywood today, discomfort remains an integral part of the working process, it seems. Like Dietrich, Jared Leto went on a crash diet to slim down to fit into the fluffy rabbit-fur jacket and thigh-grazing sundress he sported with open-toed court shoes to play transvestite Rayon in the critically acclaimed Dallas Buyers Club. He also insisted his wardrobe should contain no trousers. A panel displayed next to this outfit in the Hollywood Costume exhibition relates his interchange with Kurt Swanson and Bart Mueller, the duo who assembled the aforementioned wardrobe. ‘I already know what it’s like to wear pants,’ was how Leto had explained this insistence to Swanson and Mueller. ‘Jared was very into embracing the unknown,’ they told Nadoolman Landis. And, thanks to their help, he claimed the Best Supporting Actor prize at the 86th Academy Awards. Hollywood Costume is at 6067 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles 90036, until March 2, 2015; oscars.org/ hollywoodcostume
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TIME! FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY, PARIS’S MOULIN ROUGE HAS PLAYED HOST TO VISIONARY ARTISTS, PARTY-LOVING MUSICIANS AND ALLURING FEMMES FATALES AND AT THE HEART OF ITS LAVISH PRODUCTIONS ARE GLITTERING COSTUMES THAT BOTH DAZZLE AND DELIGHT
RAHMA/TOPICAL PRESS AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
WORDS MARIA YACOOB
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French institution, Moulin Rouge is the only high-kicking cancan show that can count HM The Queen among its high-profile guests. However, though the sails of its eponymous red mill turn just as they did all those years ago – it celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2014 – Moulin Rouge’s shows constantly evolve, ensuring it has stayed at the forefront of the global entertainment industry.
its threshold is like taking a journey back in time to the romance of fin de siècle Paris. The auditorium is bathed in a hazy red glow, soft light spills from table lamps to illuminate the striped crimson curtains that cocoon the dining area and original advertising posters pay tribute to the risqué artistes who earned the establishment worldwide notoriety for its sensual revues. Joseph Oller and Charles Zidler opened Moulin Rouge in the Jardin de Paris at the foot of Montmartre in 1889. Nicknamed the ‘First Palace of Women’, it was an extravagant venue, with a sculpture of a gigantic elephant in its garden. In this party paradise, the rich sipped champagne and rubbed shoulders with impoverished artists and courtesans. Outrageous acts such as that of Le Pétomane, a flatulist, became the talk of Paris, and its fast-and-furious signature cancan dance epitomized the taboo-breaking culture of the Belle Époque. Cheeky, provocative dancers with names like Grille d’Égout, la Môme Fromage and La Goulue flashed both their smiles and their
The current show, Féerie, is Moulin Rouge’s most successful ever. Each night, 1,800 diners are wowed by a troupe of 100 performers who, between them, don 1,000 show-stopping feather, crystal and sequin-trimmed costumes worthy of a couture catwalk. With the help of Swarovski crystal, Féerie’s costume-makers ensure the audience a dazzling performance every single night. The secret of this phenomenal success has always been Moulin Rouge’s populist blend of old and new glamour. Stepping across
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panties, and artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec gave their patronage night after night. His posters and paintings of nightlife at Moulin Rouge secured for it rapid, international fame. Within a year of opening, it welcomed Queen Victoria’s son HRH The Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII), causing La Goulue to shout out in the middle of a high-kick, ‘Hey, Wales – the champagne’s on you!’ As the century turned, Moulin Rouge was relaunched as a concert theatre. Its notoriety was preserved with Colette’s Rêve d’Égypte operetta, which featured a daring on-stage lesbian kiss. It also continued to make stars out of its acts, and the Twenties was dominated by the showgirl and singer Mistinguett. During the interwar period, it took inspiration from the United States, featuring revues with the Hoffmann Girls, later transforming into a jazz den modeled on New York’s Cotton Club. After World War II, its stage belonged to Edith Piaf and Yves Montand. BIRDS OF PARADISE Previous page: Celebrated Twenties dancer Edmonde Guydens. Opposite: The current show, Féerie, features spectacular costumes adorned with Swarovski crystals. This page, from top: Showstopping embellished feather headdresses play a scene-stealing role
In more recent decades, Moulin Rouge has celebrated its incredible history in ever-more extravagant revue shows. The Doriss Girls, which started out as a troupe of four dancers in 1957, is now 60-strong,
and its galas have attracted Hollywood royalty such as Liza Minnelli, Ginger Rogers, Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
© JULIO DONOSO/SYGMA/CORBIS; © MOULIN ROUGE ® – STELLA & CLAUDEL
Swarovski has provided the sparkle for performers at Moulin Rouge for many years, through triumphs such as Frou-Frou; Formidable; Femmes, Femmes, Femmes and now Féerie. The latter is a lavish production that cost €8m to bring to the stage. Its creators are the world-renowned directors Doris Haug and Ruggero Angeletti, and its incredible costumes are designed by Corrado Collabucci. The show mixes high-octane glamour with haute couture, and features spectacular headdresses, beautiful body jewelry and 800 pairs of highly decorative shoes. Master craftsmen in eight disciplines are required to produce these exceptionally intricate and impressive stage outfits, with Swarovski crystals – used by the plumassiers, the boot-makers and the embroiderers – being a key element. As the house lights dim for the evening’s show, the audience falls silent in anticipation. Féerie’s four acts whisk them through a South Seas pirate adventure, a trip to a saucy circus and a nostalgic review of the most famous chapters in Moulin Rouge’s own story. Acrobats perform somersaults, Shetland ponies trot in formation, and one intrepid performer shares an on-stage aquarium with pythons – but, perhaps not surprisingly, it is always the seductive cancan dancers who draw the biggest cheers of the evening. The costumes are adorned with thousands upon thousands of crystals, creating a rippling sea that bathes the artistes in a shimmering light and draws the audience’s eyes. In Féerie, Moulin Rouge and Swarovski crystals have together created one of the world’s most mesmeric and memorable spectacles.
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PRESENT
Swarovski continues to have a profound influence in the fields of fashion, jewelry and design. In 2014, it partnered with London’s V&A Museum to reimagine the exhibition Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty and added instant impact to Donatella Versace’s spring/summer collection through the development of Crystal Fine Mesh, which found a new superfan in the Italian designer and took the catwalk by storm. In this section, we also showcase this season’s most spectacular use of crystal in jewelry design
REACH FOR THE STARS
While remaining loyal to its founder’s social beliefs, Swarovski nevertheless continues to push boundaries and to invest in projects and creative individuals worldwide WORDS ROBERT RYAN
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The Swarovski Waterschool project launched in 2000. Water has always been crucial in the manufacture of crystals and Daniel was a keen environmentalist, making sure the resources at Wattens were managed responsibly. The Swarovski Waterschool teaches children the vital importance of sustainable water management so they, in turn, can influence their families and communities. So far, it has taught close to 200,000 students, and has locations in Austria, India, China, Uganda, and, now, on the Amazon in Brazil. However, the focus of the Waterschool project is still on people – the teachers it trains and the students who become ambassadors for clean, safe H2O. Many of the great industrialists and capitalists of the 19th century had one thing, apart from money, in common. They realized that, no matter what their factories produced, be it chocolate or soap powder, they were really in the ‘people’ business. In order to succeed in the long term, they needed happy workers and contented communities. You can see the results of such foresight at Port Sunlight, near Liverpool: 900 beautiful Arts & Craft houses built for the workers of William Hesketh Lever – later Viscount Leverhulme – with the profits from Sunlight soap. Cadbury constructed the Bournville model village and, in Oxford, Lord Nuffield went beyond just keeping the workforce happily housed, using his automobile fortune to endow hospitals and universities for the greater good. These men – a type also found in the USA and across Europe – shared a strong sense of social responsibility to the people who labored for them and the towns that supported them. Daniel Swarovski was created in this mold and, although he didn’t build the alpine town of Wattens, his crystal company became synonymous with it, and he built living quarters, churches, sports and cultural associations there. Daniel said: ‘Supporting social and environmental projects is the obligation of a responsible company.’ Swarovski continues the founder’s charitable and endowment work to this day, although, being a global enterprise, its reach has extended considerably. The recently created Swarovski Foundation, for example, has a dizzying array of undertakings across the world as eclectic as restoring artworks in Venice, creating the Swarovski Centre for Learning at the Design Museum in London, and also supporting the education and emancipation of women, especially in conflict zones, along with conservation and environmental projects.
Swarovski is also involved in investing in creative individuals – a process started in the late Nineties, when Isabella Blow introduced Nadja Swarovski, Daniel’s great-great-granddaughter, to the brilliant and maverick designer Alexander McQueen. Swarovski supported his spring/summer 1999 collection and is now sponsoring the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition at London’s V&A (March 14 to July 19, 2015), celebrating his much-missed talent. It will be the first major retrospective of his work in Europe. Collaborating with emerging designers is now a key element of the company’s strategy. It sponsors a program of scholarships at design schools such as Central Saint Martins in London, Parsons in New York and Lasalle in Singapore, aimed at nurturing the up-and-coming in fashion and jewelry. The International Talent Support (ITS) prize for jewelry is also provided by Swarovski, and the winner benefits from a €10,000 prize and a six-month internship at the place where it all began – Swarovski HQ in Wattens – offering a stepping stone to a very bright future. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Swarovski Collective, which gives a select group of young designers a 12-month program of financial support, access to the company’s bank of crystals, as well the chance to win the Swarovski Collective Prize for Innovation – a very useful €25,000. The concept underlying the program is straightforward: to allow new names the time and energy to reach their maximum potential and produce beautiful, visionary takes on the world of crystal jewelry. Under the Swarovski umbrella, too, are established designers who have been offered the chance to move from their sphere to fresh challenges. For example, the Crystal Palace initiative sees heavyweights in their
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BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS Opposite: The stunning Crystal Palace Ball Chandelier by Tom Dixon for Swarovski. This page, from left: Marques Almeida’s S/S15 collection is lent sparkling surface texture by Swarovski; Flower Bloom Cuff in white, Atelier Swarovski by Masha Ma
fields such as designers Tom Dixon, Hella Jongerius, Yves Behar, Solange Azagury-Partridge, architects Zaha Hadid and Nigel Coates, and even musician Lenny Kravitz taking on the challenge of reimagining the chandelier, usually to jaw-dropping effect. Recently, Swarovski has launched three new brands that, between them, represent the spectrum of creatives, from box-fresh to internationally acclaimed. Lola&grace is hip, young and affordable, whereas Cadenzza has more than 50 designers, among them top dogs such as Roberto Cavalli and young guns like Anton Heunis and Mawi London. Atelier Swarovski, is where the big boys and girls get to play in Swarovski’s sparkly dressing-up box. They have access to a vast cornucopia of crystals, which they use to set sail in their imagination for uncharted seas. Collaborators have ranged from Viktor&Rolf, Maison Martin Margiela and Zaldy, the costume designer, to Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga. However, despite this raft of new guises, Swarovski has not neglected its traditional areas of excellence. The company is currently celebrating its vast movie legacy by supporting the Academy’s Hollywood Costume exhibition (organized by the V&A) in the historic May Company building in Wilshire, Los Angeles. Here, you can wallow in nostalgia at costumes and accessories from 126 movies, whether The Wizard of Oz or The Great Gatsby, but be assured, while it is proud of its history and past glories, Swarovski is not resting on its laurels. This year, it will lend its brilliance to costumes in John le Carré’s Our Kind of Traitor (featuring a dream cast of Ewan McGregor, Damian Lewis and Stellan Skarsgård), the Wachowskis’ science-fiction epic Jupiter Ascending and Kenneth Branagh’s live-action reboot of Cinderella. With Swarovski and cinema, as in all the company’s many-faceted ventures, the future always beckons.
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FOUR YEARS AFTER ITS RECORD-BREAKING RUN IN NEW YORK, THE ALEXANDER MCQUEEN: SAVAGE BEAUTY RETROSPECTIVE WILL BE MAGNIFICENTLY REIMAGINED AT LONDON’S V&A MUSEUM THIS SPRING, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SWAROVSKI WORDS NATALIE RIGG
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SEQUODITATEM HARIBUS, ODIT AUT
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ee ‘Alexander’ McQueen was a rare and unstoppable force in fashion. Dramatic, theatrical and fearlessly provocative, the British designer challenged and inspired with his extraordinary creations. From his derrièreflashing ‘bumster’ trousers to his raven feather-strewn dresses, hard-shouldered frock coats and elaborate chiffon gowns with hand-painted Renaissance motifs, his haute-couture sensibility, astute tailoring skills and rebellious showmanship remain unparalleled.
Entitled Savage Beauty, it was first shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in 2011, where it was a sell-out success and one of the institution’s top-10 most visited exhibitions. During its run, more than half a million visitors from across the globe clamored for a glimpse into McQueen’s infinite imagination. The long-awaited V&A show, from March 2015, is a dynamic and compelling tribute to the London-bornand-raised talent, who honed his skills on Savile Row and at Central Saint Martins School of Art before
founding his eponymous label in 1992. In homage to McQueen’s roots and the city he cited as his ‘greatest inspiration’, the V&A has placed a greater emphasis on his earlier career than the Met, and will be exhibiting his debut collections. ‘Think of it as a prelude,’ says Claire Wilcox, the show’s senior fashion curator. ‘You’re greeted by 10 key looks from shows such as The Birds [spring/summer 1995] and The Hunger [spring/summer 1996], where he used much less expensive fabrics in innovative ways, such as slashing, ripping and burning,’ she says, before adding, ‘We feel it makes a good segue into the more refined tailoring that comes afterwards’. Another key addition is a life-sized restoration of the awe-inspiring hologram of Kate Moss that famously closed his autumn/winter 2007 Widows Of Culloden runway show. Pictured floating and dancing inside a glass pyramid clad in an ethereal dove-grey chiffon dress, the haunting apparition serves as a touching reminder of the close friendship the designer shared with the supermodel throughout his career. In order to recreate the sense of spectacle that became synonymous with McQueen’s aesthetic, garments will be presented on ivory mannequins set in elaborately themed sets featuring giant glass caskets, mirrorlined walls, candelabra, antique gold stands and video screens that play looped footage of his sensational shows. ‘It was very important for us to capture the bravery and true spirit of the designer,’ reveals Wilcox. ‘This is as close to being at one of his magnificent presentations as one can get.’ Needless to say, even visitors who are unfamiliar with McQueen’s impressive anthology won’t fail to be moved by his signature creations. A tailored printed silk and cotton twill jacket with exaggerated shoulders and a nipped-in waist from It’s a Jungle Out There (autumn/winter 1998) exemplifies his sharp technical wizardry. A sculptural feather-embellished dress plucked from the highly celebrated Horn Of Plenty line, meanwhile, seamlessly underpins theatre with the romance of Fifties couture and the recurring nature theme that was played out in all his collections. Elsewhere, the Spine corset from his spring/summer 1998 Untitled line showcases McQueen’s ability to
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SHINING EXAMPLES Previous page: Alexander McQueen photographed by Rankin; an iridescent Crystal Mesh dress from McQueen’s first collaboration with Swarovski Left: A crystal jumpsuit and minidress with built-up shoulders from S/S09. Above: Crystals and metallics featured prominently in the No.13 collection Right: Models encrusted in crystals for S/S09
PREVIOUS PAGES: CHRIS MOORE; RANKIN/TRUNK ARCHIVE. THIS PAGE: CLAIRE ROBERTSON
Now, two decades of McQueen’s pioneering body of work, from his 1992 graduate collection to the poignantly unfinished autumn/winter 2010 season that preceded his tragic death at the age of 40, will be showcased in a vast retrospective at the V&A, in London, sponsored by Swarovski.
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A HEAD OF ITS TIME Model Esther Ca単adas enmeshed in Swarovski crystal for the S/S99 show
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‘He didn’t say much, but his eyes sparkled. The crystal was just another creative ingredient to him.’ Their kinship was further cemented in 1998, when Swarovski took the unprecedented step of supporting McQueen’s now-iconic spring/summer 1999 No. 13 collection. True to form, he used the twinkling adornments in a magnificent way, framing nude, fitted tulle dresses with a precious Crystal Mesh. The collaboration was the first of many, resulting in some of the label’s most sought-after pieces, such as the startling gemstone-encrusted Bird’s Nest headpieces from the autumn/winter 2006 Widows Of Culloden and spring/summer 2009’s astonishing crystalembellished bell-jar dresses. In turn, the highly successful union led to the formation of the Swarovski Collective, an international talent program that has both promoted and nurtured more than 150 emerging designers in the past 15 years. The scheme has allowed the brightest young creatives from all over the world to find and define their own voice, challenge the archetypal conventions of beauty and continue to drive the artistic conversation forward – which is undoubtedly what the late great Alexander McQueen will be dearly remembered for. NO MEAN FEET Above: Crystal-embellished shoe from S/S09 Right: McQueen at work backstage
beauty in the grotesque. Created in collaboration with progressive British jeweler Shaun Leane, the striking piece sees a black leather boned bodice bound by a protruding sterling-silver ribcage and spine that curves away from the body. And, lest we forget, there’s the opportunity to see the worm-encased plastic bodice – said to resemble ‘bulging veins’ – that topped off a blood-red silk faille skirt with silver antlers in a daring ensemble from The Hunger.
CLAIRE ROBERTSON
Yet, alongside the elaborate silhouettes, wild use of color and off-kilter fabrications, it is undoubtedly McQueen’s startling attention to detail and masterful craftsmanship that remain the biggest draw. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the delicate and unique way in which he employed Swarovski crystals in his collections. ‘I can only liken it to angel dust,’ says Wilcox. ‘The way he used them was very carefully considered. It gave the surface of the fabric a subtle glimmer and a magical quality that would have been unachievable in any other way.’ The iridescent masterpieces chart an illuminating history between McQueen and Swarovski that can be traced back to the early Nineties, when the influential British fashion arbiter Isabella Blow – who snapped up his entire graduate collection and became a close confidante – first introduced the young designer to Nadja Swarovski. ‘He had such an appreciation for different materials,’ Nadja recalls of their meeting.
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A NEW PERSPECTIVE
PHOTOGR APHER K ATE JACKLING SET DESIGNER ANNET TE MASTERMAN ST YLIST URSUL A L AKE
INSPIRED BY NATURE’S CAPTIVATING PATTERNS, AND TO BREATHTAKING EFFECT, DESIGNERS HAVE USED SWAROVSKI CRYSTALS TO BRING LIGHT AND DEPTH TO NEW JEWELRY
Opposite, from left: Velvet Rock Double Rings, Atelier Swarovski by Viktor & Rolf; Flower Leaves Necklace, Atelier Swarovski by Masha Ma This page, from top: Frost Thin Cuff, Atelier Swarovski by Vincent Van Duysen; St James Ring, Atelier Swarovski Core Collection
This page, from left: Raijin Ring and Raijin Bracelet, both Delphine-Charlotte Parmentier Opposite: Strass Choker Necklace, Givenchy
This page: Cherry Blossom Choker, Alexander McQueen Opposite: Apolonia Necklace, Shourouk
Opposite, from top: Vio Ring, Swarovski; Bracelet, Camila Klein for World Jewelry Facets This page: Crystal Chain Necklace, Lanvin PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS Russell Higton and Joe Jackson DIGITAL OPERATOR Brian Cleaver SET DESIGNER’S ASSISTANT Lora Avedian
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A FINE ROMANCE The marriage of Swarovski’s new fabric and Versace’s Atelier collection is a union that’s glamorous, sexy and dynamic – in other words, totally Donatella WORDS EMMA O’KELLY
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f Swarovski were a dating agency, it would specialize in forging the most glamorous, highprofile and long-lasting of relationships. In 2014, Maison Martin Margiela tied the knot with Crystalactite – a revolutionary crystal-meets-resin that is cut to resemble stalactites – to create a striking line of jewelry. Last spring, Jean Paul Gaultier complemented a collection fit for a hip-luxe Hell’s Angel with Crystal Spikes and Studs. And now Donatella Versace, too, is attached; she is enamored with Crystal Fine Mesh – a sparkling new body-con fabric to which she has lent her customary va-va-voom.
Crystal Fine Mesh is an evolution of the original fabric, Crystal Mesh, launched by Swarovski in 1993. Available in no fewer than 36 colors and 15 effects, it employs thousands of tiny, luminescent Xilion chatons to give the impression of a glimmering second skin. Versace is all about sex and glamour, of course, with a long tradition of creating dramatic outfits that light up eveningwear, particularly when showcased on the red carpet, which her astonishing pieces often are. ‘The great thing about Swarovski crystal is that it adds instant impact to a garment,’ explains Donatella. Swarovski Crystal Fine Mesh certainly has this effect.
‘I always look for the best materials through which to interpret my vision for a collection, and the new Crystal Fine Mesh fabrics are fine enough to be smooth and sinuous and to move with the body, which is the effect I was looking for,’ says Donatella.
The fabric made its debut on the Atelier Versace autumn/winter 2014–15 haute-couture catwalk in Paris. Models stalked the runway in asymmetric satin ballgowns inspired by Fifties couture but with
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up-to-the-minute cut-outs that revealed black Crystal Fine Mesh bodysuits beneath. Mink coats, meanwhile, featured a frayed patchwork of mesh and organza, while other garments saw the mesh juxtaposed with fox fur, vinyl and leather and semi-transparent nylon. Buckles, slashes and slits kept the collection in tune with the trademark outré look of the Italian fashion house, but precision-cut jackets, long skirts and metaltrimmed corsets with T-shirt under-layers suggested a new restraint – albeit with a residual undercurrent of allure. Strictness over sexiness was the order of the day, it seemed, but in a well-choreographed show, the one inevitably led to the other as precise tailoring was peeled away to reveal bare décolletages and backs, naked hipbones and navels. A major talking point was the ‘trouser dress’, in which one trouser leg emerges from the folds of an elegant skirt of duchesse satin. Front-row attendee and Donatella devotee Jennifer Lopez wore the gown-pant hybrid in white and carried it off with predictable aplomb. Versace and music-industry stars such as J.Lo have long been mutual admirers. Last summer, Donatella wrote a glowing review of Mariah Carey’s album, Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse, for Vogue. com, while Lady Gaga has penned a song about fashion’s First Lady and Beyoncé has celebrated New Year at the Versace mansion in Miami. It’s no secret that Donatella is a lover of rock music, and she is said to enjoy listening to it cranked up to high volume. Glamour and rock have always gone together, and there are certainly echoes of the glam-rock spirit in the Versace spring/summer 2015 womenswear collection. Again, it features Crystal Fine Mesh, but this time in a more graphic way – some of the decorative motifs are very Ziggy Stardust. The designer’s enthusiasm for employing the fabric in her new line suggests she enjoyed experimenting with it in last season’s couture collection, and that her couture atelier may well be a laboratory where she can play with new ideas then filter them through to her ready-to-wear. This time around, Crystal Fine Mesh appears in a more punchy, modernist, angular, color-blocked guise – a bolder and more modern interpretation. The new collection has a clean, selfconsciously contemporary look, but it is still sexy and glamorous and, as always, packed with attitude.
WORKING IT Opposite: Making use of the sinuous quality of Crystal Fine Mesh, Versace focused on asymmetric silhouettes for the prêt-à-porter collection it showed at S/S15 Milan Fashion Week This page, above: Examples of Donatella’s unique spin on the ballgown for Atelier Versace haute couture A/W14 on the Paris runway, where the stunning new fabric, below, was unveiled
“I return to crystal time and time again because it fits with the Versace vision” complemented by Crystal Fine Mesh panties and knee-high black boots with Swarovski crystal buckles.
Attitude is a key attribute of the Versace woman, of course, so it is fitting that a number of celebrities have stepped out in designs featuring the new Swarovski fabric. Last year, Gwen Stefani appeared at the Emmy awards in a custom-made haute couture two-piece from Atelier Versace that shone with silver Xilion chatons. Her top was made entirely of Crystal Fine Mesh with rectangular cut-outs criss-crossed with metal straps down its plunging front, while her skirt – again in Crystal Fine Mesh – was a column style set off with a gold buckle at the hip.
This is not the first time Swarovski and Versace have joined forces, and it certainly won’t be the last. Recognizing the instant impact of crystal, the fashion house has turned to the crystal house for adornment of its clothes, shoes, bags and jewelry for many years. In 2014, Donatella created a collection for Swarovski’s Cadenzza brand, which showcases covetable pieces from more than 50 designers, including Valentino, Mawi and Roberto Cavalli. Standout Versace pieces include charm bracelets, rings and cufflinks sporting the brand’s famous Medusa crest.
Meanwhile, during New York Fashion Week for the spring/summer 2015 collections, J.Lo performed at the charity fundraiser Fashion Rocks in a mesh micromini dress. A more revealing version of Stefani’s, with the same bondage-evocative neckline, it was
‘I return to crystal time and again because it fits with the Versace vision – dynamic, exciting, head-turning clothes for strong women,’ Donatella says.
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FUTURE
From time-lapse photography capturing the melting glaciers to a crystal symbolizing mankind’s commitment to the future of Mars, Swarovski continues to support the next generation of visionaries. In this section, we look at Swarovski’s new cuts, colors and effects for 2016 and celebrate the exquisite craftsmanship demonstrated by some of the world’s greatest fashion designers
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A CUT ABOVE Never one to rest on its laurels, Swarovski continues to create and collaborate, working to safeguard not only its own future, but that of our natural environment WORDS ROBERT RYAN
History tells us the future can be a risky place to visit. The opportunities for humiliation are endless. For example, in 1920, The New York Times claimed: ‘A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere’ (it gracefully retracted this in 1969, when Apollo 11 was on its way to the Moon). In 1964, an executive at Decca Records stated: ‘Groups are out. Four-piece groups with guitars particularly are finished.’ Odd, because the guitar quartet he was turning down at the time, The Beatles, appeared to have some mileage left in them. And, as recently as 2007, USA Today was trying to save its readers money by assuring them: ‘There’s no chance the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.’
So who would be fool enough to stick their neck out and predict how the world will be in two, five or 10 years? Well, every company in the fashion industry for one. The nature of the business means its pioneers have to know not only from which way the wind will blow, but how hard. Swarovski is no exception. Recently, the company took a view that, having made crystals almost ubiquitous in the world today, adorning everything from shoes to champagne bottles, it needed to consolidate its place as the premium brand and also guard against piracy and counterfeiting, neither of which is likely to go away. So, in order to reassure customers and consumers that they are buying the best crystals on the planet, Swarovski has revolutionized its
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loose-crystal business through its Ingredient Branding program. This means that if an item – be it clothes, shoes or accessories – uses genuine Swarovski wares, it has a foil-backed, high-security, tracking-numbered label stamped with the words ‘Crystals by Swarovski’ and founder Daniel Swarovski’s signature. This seal is, to put it simply, its method of future-proofing its status, a way of reminding clients and customers that, when it comes to crystals, they really should accept no substitute, now or ever. But the brand also has to examine just how its crystals will be used in the near future. A Trend Department of five people works at the company’s headquarters at Wattens, variously qualified in sociology, economics and design. They are charged with trying to foresee the future, called upon currently to predict what we might all be wearing in 2016/17, for the Swarovski collections. The Trend Department does not work in isolation, however; there is a constant exchange of ideas between the design and technological sides of the business, because Swarovski is a firm believer in the power of cross-pollination of ideas. For example, Ute Schumacher, vice-president of the Design Center, says that three or four years ago there was merely ‘something in the air’ about the idea of combining crystals with a resin-like substance. Initially, this musing came from the Technology Department, but soon Design and Trend took up the baton of examining the chimeric concept. The result of this multidisciplinary brainstorming was a fusion technique by which crystal is merged with matt white resin before it is cut, making gluing unnecessary. The resulting material is Crystalactite, as used in the asymmetrical and futuristic stalactite-like pieces from the Maison Martin Margiela Crystalactite for Swarovski collection. Expect to see more of it.
SPACE-AGE DESIGN Opposite: Swarovski’s limited-edition Tiuterra Crystal, which was developed in collaboration with the Austrian Space Forum. This page, from top: A piece from the innovative Maison Martin Margiela Crystalactite for Swarovski collection; part of the Thinning Ice installation at Design Miami
It may have had one eye on the cosmos recently, but Swarovski isn’t neglecting the challenges its home planet faces. The company has never forgotten the pivotal role water played in its foundation and is aware just how much of the Earth’s fate hinges on the disruptions to its cycle, from severe drought to catastrophic flooding, from land loss through sea levels rising to glaciers melting thanks to global warming. With the latter impacting on its native Tyrol, Swarovski has teamed up with the US-based Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) to monitor the changes on the Stubai Glacier, which is close to Wattens and feeds the Inn river, the source of the crystal house’s water. EIS founder, geoscientist and photographer James Balog and his team have installed 43 cameras on snowand ice-capped mountains around the world, from Stubai to Nepal to Greenland. The resulting footage, using landscape time-lapse photography, shows the alarming rate of ‘deglaciation’ across the globe and is at once chillingly beautiful and quite terrifying. Some of the images and videos were recently exhibited at Design Miami as part of Thinning Ice, an installation commissioned by Swarovski from Chicago-based architect Jeanne Gang, a visual and visceral collision of art, nature and man-made change. Meanwhile, the cameras keep snapping away, like mute guardians of the glaciers. Swarovski intends to give them a voice.
In a similar fashion, two worlds collided in the Tiuterra Crystal, the result of a collaboration between Swarovski and the Austrian Space Forum, an organization established to fire the public imagination for interplanetary travel. The ethereally beautiful limited-edition Tiuterra is a fusion of terrestrial and extraterrestrial rocks – sourced from a meteorite – with Swarovski crystal, which makes for an endlessly fascinating crystalline version of those pieces of amber containing prehistoric insects. The Tiuterra feels like a glimpse into other, future worlds, which is highly apposite, because Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti carried three of them to the International Space Station in November of last year.
In many ways, the EIS project harks all the way back to Daniel Swarovski and his arrival in Wattens in 1895, and it is back in that Austrian town this year that the new Crystal Worlds attraction will be unveiled. Bigger and better than its previous, incredibly popular incarnation, it promises to feature some stunning new installations that play with light and color, including an innovative ‘crystal cloud’ of more than half a million crystals floating over a black Mirror Pool, designed to mesmerize and delight visitors.
The Tiuterra feels like a glimpse into other, future worlds
These two initiatives might seem worlds apart – one cautionary, the other celebratory – but both EIS and Crystal Worlds capture the company’s consistent approach to all its projects: to honor and build on the past, while striving to create a better future.
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Opposite: Dress, Maison Martin Margiela; collar, Atelier Swarovski by Vincent van Duysen
WAYS TO GLOW SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL, IN ALL ITS GLISTENING GLORY, LENDS LUMINOSITY TO THE SPRING/SUMMER 2015 COLLECTIONS PHOTOGR APHER RORY VAN MILLINGEN ST YLIST NOBUKO TANNAWA
This page: Dress, Peter Pilotto; bracelet, Atelier Swarovski by Viktor&Rolf Opposite: Top, Cos; trousers, Mary Katrantzou; apron, Marques Almeida; PavĂŠ Archer ring, Giles & Brother, available at Cadenzza
This page: Coat dress, Damir Doma; sandals, Robert Clergerie Opposite: Top and gown, both Prabal Gurung
This page: Top, Wes Gordon; Mirrored Bird earrings, Lulu Frost, available at Cadenzza Opposite: Dress, Iris van Herpen; Timeless ring, Myia Passiello, available at Cadenzza
Opposite: Top, Versace; trousers, J. JS Lee This page: Shirt, Equipment; bra, Ashley Williams; skirt, Studio Nicholson SET DESIGNER George Lewin PHOTOGRAPHER’S ASSISTANTS Sofie Middernacht and Philip Banks STYLIST’S ASSISTANT Gabrielle Lawrence SET DESIGNER’S ASSISTANT Bryony Edwards HAIRSTYLIST Kota Suizu MAKE-UP ARTIST Nami Yoshida MANICURIST Kim Treacy MODEL Cindy Bruna at Elite
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AFTER A CAREER SPANNING NEARLY FIVE DECADES, YOU’D HAVE THOUGHT SUPERYACHT DESIGNER AND ALL-ROUND CREATIVE POWERHOUSE MARTIN FRANCIS WOULD HAVE SEEN IT ALL, BUT HIS LATEST COLLABORATION WITH SWAROVSKI ‘BLEW HIS MIND’ WORDS NICK COMPTON
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artin Francis has had a convoluted but covetable career. A good part of it has involved designing luxury yachts from a base in the south of France – and not just any old yachts, but some of the biggest, fastest, most beautiful and groundbreaking craft ever to weigh anchor, including a collaborative effort with Philippe Starck. Ever conscious of his personal brand, Starck refused him equal billing, but Francis – self-effacing and a little shy – still insists working with him was a joy.
at the college now known as Central Saint Martins. On graduation, he became a cabinet-maker, designing and building his own furniture, but soon became bored. In 1967, looking to add to his skill set, he started work with structural engineer Tony Hunt and the young Norman Foster, then a long way from establishing his international mega-practice. ‘In those days, his office was a bedsit in Hampstead,’ says Francis. After a brief rock’n’roll adventure as the assistant production manager on The Rolling Stones’ 1970 European tour – he got the gig after building them a pack-away proscenium arch – and a brief stint working at The Rainbow, the legendary concert venue in Finsbury Park, London, Francis again worked with Foster. He would be pivotal in creating the building that really established the architect’s reputation: the Willis Faber & Dumas headquarters in Ipswich, which is now a Grade I listed building. Completed in 1975, it had what was then the largest glass wall in the world – a 4,000sq m vitreous wave. It was Francis who devised a way of making that wall stand up and stay put, and he quickly became known as the ‘glass man’.
When he wasn’t designing yachts, he worked with Britain’s two architect Lords, Foster and Rogers, at pivotal points in their pre-ennoblement careers; legendary French architect and designer Jean Prouvé; one of the founding fathers of minimalist art, Frank Stella; and, in the early Seventies, at the height of their mayhem-making powers, The Rolling Stones. Like The Rolling Stones, and indeed a whole generation of British artists, musicians and significant creatives of other stripes in the mid-Sixties, Francis studied at art school in London – in his case, furniture design,
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GRAND DESIGNS Opposite: Martin Francis. This page: Luxury motor yacht A, with interiors by Philippe Starck
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However, the mid-Seventies was not a good era for architects. Little was being built and Francis decided to make the move to France, where his wife had relatives. He had grown up near the Thames and had always enjoyed messing around with boats; in France, he got more serious about it and they became a passion, both personally and professionally. Having taken a job with a local mastmaker, he worked on the rigs for two French entries in the 1977–78 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race. In his spare time, he built his own boat, a novel brushed-aluminum design that cut through the water with eye-catching speed – eye-catching enough, in fact, to attract design commissions. He soon found himself at work on the four largest sloops in the world.
SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME This page, from top: Martin Francis’s development boat for Mercedes – a first for the car marque; tthe glass pyramid at the Louvre, which he helped design. Opposite: His wife, designer Sandrine Melot, used the Swarovski Surface Collection, which includes crystal-embellished wood, leather and suede, to dramatic effect on board Philmi
Peter Rice, whom architecture writer Jonathan Glancey called ‘the James Joyce of structural engineers’. They worked together on the La Villette science museum in Paris, with Francis designing the cable-braced glass walls and going on to develop a rigging system for IM Pei’s giant glass pyramids at the Louvre. He eventually got back on the water in 1995, designing Senses, an almost 60m-long expedition motor yacht with interiors by Philippe Starck. It was bought in 2011 by Google founder Larry Page for $45m. The duo collaborated again in 2004, on the now-iconic yacht A, which launched in 2008. Francis said Starck came up with the radical inverted bow design in three and a half hours and it was his job to make it seaworthy. Of course, he did much more than that, and the 119m boat – built for a Russian billionaire at a reported cost of nearly $300m – can do 23 knots and barely make a splash. Along the way, he has managed to fit in two decades of building giant sculptures for
It was then that he made the move into luxury motor yachts, winning a commission from Mexican media mogul Emilio Azcárraga. Eco, at almost 75m long, with huge, optically correct convex glass windows, launched in 1991 looking like no boat before it. It was also very fast, reaching 30 knots-plus, partly due to the hydrofoil beneath its rear end. A couple of renames and owners later – among them Oracle software company founder Larry Ellison – and it remains one of the largest and fastest motor yachts in the world.
ALAMY
Super-luxury yachting is a rarefied world, but in it, Eco is legend. It would be eight years after its launch, however, before Francis received another commission for a boat. The market for that kind of kit is a shallow pool, and his radical designs may have scared off prospective clients. Naturally, he had other things to be getting on with – he continued to work with Foster and, for a period, was managing director of the French wing of his operation, as well as a near neighbor. Back in 1981, he had established design and engineering firm RFR with the late and influential
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“Francis became fascinated with how the hardedged crystals accentuated the other materials”
American painter and printmaker Frank Stella and designing the inflatables used during the Tour de France, including the finishing line and the podium. He is now designing a 124m yacht and working with Mercedes on the development of its first boat – an expertly engineered 14m saloon for the seas. The list of Francis’s other notable achievements includes a collaboration with Swarovski. Perhaps it was inevitable that a designer so identified with glass, advanced engineering and the particular fancies and fantasies of the super-rich would eventually work with the crystal house. And while you might imagine there was little left that could impress a man with his resumé, he says the technology and ethos evident at Swarovski’s headquarters in Wattens ‘blew his mind’. What has come out of Francis’s blown mind is a radical new range of crystal-enhanced panels in leather, wood and suede for use by interior architects and designers, particularly those working in the field of high-end outfitting. ‘By placing individual crystals in simple
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arrangements on different textures – combining crystal with leather and lacquer, for instance – the eye no longer focuses on any particular material but rather on the entire surface,’ he explains. Francis became fascinated with how the hard-edged crystals accentuated the properties of the other materials – the softness of the hide, for example. Keeping things in the family, the first to work with the Surface Collection, as it is known, is Francis’s wife, designer Sandrine Melot of Melot & Trillo. She used the collection to dramatic effect in creating the interiors of the 43m, Italian-built motor yacht Philmi. ‘It not only lends a discreet luxury touch,’ she says, ‘but also provides another source of light.’ For Martin Francis, working with Swarovski is another chance to divert down interesting side roads, lend his expertise to novel projects, and master a range of new skills – something he has been doing throughout his career. ‘I used to be embarrassed about not being a specialist,’ he says. Not any more.
frame
FREEZE -
A PROJECT CAPTURING MELTING GLACIERS ON FILM IS HELPING ENSURE THE BEAUTY OF THE PRISTINE AUSTRIAN LANDSCAPE IS PRESERVED FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS — AN ENVIRONMENTAL AIM CLOSE TO SWAROVSKI’S HEART
WORDS NICK SMITH
FLOWING PATH The Greenland ice sheet, 2006 – a meltwater channel carves through the silt and dust blown onto the ice
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Two meters may not sound much in the grand scheme of things, but according to EIS founder, geoscientist and internationally renowned photographer James Balog, meltwater from the retreat of the European Alpine glaciers accounts for as much as half the rise in sea levels around the world today. ‘People think the main cause of this is the melting of the polar ice caps,’ says Balog. ‘But a big part of the problem is something that’s happening right on our doorstep.’
But behind the classic scenery, all is not as it seems, with global warming taking its toll on the Tyrolean landscape. The glacier that is the heart and soul of the local winter-sports business is melting – receding at a rate of two meters a year. For Swarovski, the headquarters of which is located in Wattens, in the nearby Inn Valley, it’s too close to home. In order to monitor the situation, the crystal house has teamed up with the US-based Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), which earlier this year put in place a time-lapse photography project to record the effect of global warming.
In years gone by, explorers did this sort of fieldwork, regularly visiting far-flung, dangerous mountain ranges with film cameras slung around their necks, consulting maps and notebooks to rediscover their vantage points. Today, it’s a bit more scientific and a lot more automated, with rugged digital kit permanently sited out in the field. To install the Stubai photographic equipment, a small band of modern-day Alpine explorers, among them Nadja Swarovski, ventured onto the Stubai Glacier last July. It is anticipated that, over the next three years, these cameras will provide not just pictorial evidence of the rate of retreat of the ice, but also an overall scenario of the impact of global warming on the region. The images will then be sent to Balog’s operations base in Colorado for analysis.
CLEAR VISION A spectacular close-up of intriguingly beautiful ice crystals, Greenland, 2008
OUTER SPACE Bubbles of ancient air rise in billowing clusters from the ice sheet as it melts
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© 2012 JAMES BALOG, EXTREME ICE SURVEY
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ucked away at the end of a long, pristine Alpine valley is the Stubai Glacier. Just under an hour’s drive from Innsbruck, it’s the largest winter-sports resort in Austria. Snow is virtually guaranteed here from October through to June, and cable cars and ski lifts criss-cross the Christmas-card scenery. At 3,000m up, the air is crisp and clear, the sky is cobalt blue and the pistes are swarming with families enjoying the typical pleasures of a day’s skiing in the Alps.
One of the best ways to prove glacier retreat is with time-lapse landscape photography – an art in which Balog is recognized as one of the world’s leading experts. With the help of his incredible images, he has been able to provide clear evidence of the glacial yearon-year disappearing act. To capture these snapshots, he and his team have installed 43 time-lapse photography stations around the world. From Mount Everest to the Rocky Mountains, and Greenland to Nepal, these cameras record the state of the ice from identical positions and at specific intervals. And Balog’s work is certainly helping to get the message across: his 2012 documentary, Chasing Ice, was nominated for an Oscar. Critics agreed that the effects of global warming have never before been demonstrated as artistically – or disturbingly.
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GLACIAL RELICS Luminescent pieces of the 700-year-old Breidermerkurjokull washed up on the beach at Jökulsárlón, Iceland, 2009
Nadja Swarovski says she is honored to support the work of the EIS in Austria. The rate of retreat – or ‘deglaciation’, as geologists call it – ‘really brought home the impact of our actions on our immediate environment as well as the wider world, and I am delighted that we will have direct involvement in this important project,’ she says. The work of the survey has a particular resonance for the crystal house, as the meltwater from the Stubai glacier flows directly into the Inn river, which is the source of the water used by Swarovski in Wattens. Historically speaking, access to this supply was a major factor in Daniel Swarovski setting up his company in the Tyrol region. Forty per cent of the power consumed at the facility today is in the form of ‘renewable’ hydroelectricity. Balog takes up the story: ‘Swarovski is very interested in the preservation of water in different parts of the world and wants to exercise whatever leverage it can to preserve it. It wanted to have a practical expression of this through its local Alpine water supply, thus connecting with our project.’
“The images really bring home the impact of our actions on our environment”
While water is of critical importance to Swarovski’s manufacturing process, the reason for sponsoring the survey’s ice-monitoring photographic project goes right back to the company’s commitment to
environmental sustainability. Ever since the crystal house was founded in the late 19th century, Swarovski has had ‘a close relationship with, and respect for, the natural environment’. By participating in the global EIS, it is aiming to hold true to its founder’s vision of a company that not only has at its heart the wellbeing of its employees, but also that of society and the environment as a whole. For Balog, it is an opportunity to combine his training as a geoscientist with his vocation as an artist with a camera. ‘Most of the time, art and science stare at each other across a gulf of mutual incomprehension,’ he says. ‘Art, of course, looks at the world through the psyche, the emotions and the aesthetic. Science tends to look at the world through the rational, the quantitative. But it gives art a terrific context of understanding.’ He thinks it is this combination that will enable his survey to reach out to those with the power to get things done. Meanwhile, the combination of Balog’s vision and Swarovski’s commitment to environmental sustainability could go a long way to ensuring that the Stubai Glacier will provide winter sports for generations to come. For further details about the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), visit extremeicesurvey.org
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The stars in the new collection of crystal cuts, colors and effects from Swarovski for spring/summer 2016
MIERSWA -KLUSKA; Š ROBERT STRIEGL FOTOSTUDIO
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Opposite: New Cut Emerald Cut Bead This page: New Effect Crystal Powder Yellow
Opposite: New Cut Fatima Hand Fancy Stone This page: New Color Blush Rose
Opposite: New Effect Crystal Metallic Sunshine This page: New Cut Pure Drop Pendant (half-hole) with Trumpet Cap
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ATELIER SWAROVSKI AND CADENZZA STOCKISTS
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THE AMERICAS USA: Dillard’s +1 800 345 5273 USA, Los Angeles: Fred Segal +323 651 1800 USA, Texas: Forty Five Ten +1 214 559 4510 Virgin Islands, St Thomas: Little Switzerland +1 340 248 809 5560 Also available at top Swarovski stores around the world; atelierswarovski.com CADENZZA STOCKISTS EUROPE Austria, Innsbruck +43 512 573100 swarovski.innsbruck@swarovski.com
ROCK STARS Opposite: Raijin ring and Raijin bracelet, both Delphine-Charlotte Parmentier Above: Hand-painted lamé dress with hand-embroidered lace, rib-knit details and Swarovski crystals; embossed crocodile- and lizard-skin shoes PHOTOGRAPHY Kate Jackling Elle Muliarchyk
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LEADING LIGHT
As Swarovski celebrates its 120th birthday, artist Kyle Bean – known for his playful reimagining of everyday objects – has been inspired to create a very special candle that harnesses the power of crystals PHOTOGR APHY MITCH PAYNE
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HANDPICKED LUXURY FA SHION JEWELLERY W W W.C A D E N Z Z A .C O M J E W E L L E RY BY B E N - A M U N A N D H É L È N E Z U B E L D I A