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SHINE ON THIS WINTER
with Zaha hadid, hussein Chalayan, giles deaCon,
david RoCkwell, konstantin gRCiC, doshi levien,
MaRios sChwaB, antonio BeRaRdi, tokujin yoshioka…
Plus an aPPReCiation oF alexandeR MCQueen
Salt Vol.1
Autumn / Winter 2010 €
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CONTENTS
13 THE CUT
Swarovski news from around the world, beginning with the CFDA Fashion Awards
14 NEWS
A round-up of the latest global events
16 DAVID ROCKWELL
Salt talks exclusively to the designer about his centrepiece for the 2010 Oscars, the Swarovski Crystal Curtain
18 NEWS
A Viennese flagship store for Swarovski
20 22 WAyS TO SAy BLACK
Swarovski Elements asked designers such as Giorgio Armani, Valentino and Phillip Lim to reinterpret the little black dress
23 SWAROVSKI CRySTALLIZED™
COLLECTION
The latest collaborative jewellery collection from 18 top designers made with Swarovski Elements takes inspiration from the catwalk
27 STUDENT COMPETITION
The winning design from the Swarovski-sponsored jewellery design competition at Central Saint Martins college
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28 HUSSEIN CHALAyAN
A look at the work of the celebrated and experimental fashion designer
30 NEWS
Collaborations from the fashion world, plus new concept stores
32 MENSWEAR
Glitz isn’t just for girls anymore, as a new fashion collection proves
34 NEWS
A shining theatrical performance and a gorgeous new book
36 OSCAR COLLECTION
How Swarovski added some sparkle to the red carpet at the 2010 Oscars
38 RODARTE
CFDA winners Rodarte on the childhood inspirations behind their designs
41 SEx AND THE CITy
Why Carrie Bradshaw and the girls are more popular than ever
42 SOCIAL NETWORKINg
How the fashion industry is using social media to spread their message
Above, from left A model in a Giles dress made with Swarovski Elements, backstage at Paris Fashion Week; Yves Béhar’s ‘Amplify’ lantern for Swarovski Crystal Palace
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CONTENTS
Above, from left Design legend Halston with muse Paloma Picasso; jacket by Wacko Maria for Swarovski Elements Menswear Initiative; Swarovski Elements at Work ‘un-Wired’ collection, Below: skirt by Antonio Berardi with Swarovski Elements
44 Behind the SceneS
Salt sent three renowned photographers to three Fashion Weeks and gave them exclusive backstage access
54 coStume deSign
Getting the dress right is as important in Hollywood today as it was in its heyday
58 Atelier SwArovSki
The cutting-edge accessories collection features A/W10 designs from Karl Lagerfeld to Christopher Kane
64 lAdy gAgA
How the boundary-pushing artiste has earnt her place amongst the glitterati
68 SwArovSki cryStAl PAlAce
The incubator for cutting-edge design, demonstrating the merger of art, design and technology
74 hAlSton
A remarkable comeback for the fashion label created by fashion’s first superstar
78 FAShion Story
High-end fashion on the streets of New York, shot by acclaimed fashion photographer Guy Aroch
88 AlexAnder mcQueen
Sarah Mower on the late designer’s career and legacy
90 deSignS For liFe
The Swarovski Elements Interiors Initiative challenged designers to integrate crystal into their work
98 innovAtionS
The latest shapes, cuts and colours from Swarovski Elements, set to sparkle in autumn/winter 2011/12
110 ZAhA hAdid
Salt talks exclusively to the architect and designer about her varied and brilliant international career
114 trendS
The results of months of research from the Swarovski Elements trends team. Here Salt showcases their predictions for next season
120 SwArovSki StockiStS
Swarovski stores and contact details all over the world
122 cryStAl univerSe
The world’s largest natural crystals are underground in a hot Mexican cave
06
COVER PHOTOGRAPH: GUY AROCH
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Welcome to salt
Welcome to the f irst edition of Salt, which has evolved from Swarovski’s previous publications, CRYSTALLIZED™ magazine and RoCkS magazine. It celebrates the use of crystal in the worlds of fash ion, jewel ler y, a rch itec tu re and design. Just as salt enhances cuisine, we hope Swarovski crystal enhances the creative impact of any designer. At Swarovski we have a passion for innovation and experimentation. We are privileged to work with the greatest creative minds and encourage them to reach the height of their creativity through the use of our precision-cut crystal. The designers that are featured in this issue demonstrate inspirational examples of how crystal has been used in groundbreaking ways.
We are very proud of our long-term collaborations with world renowned artists – the likes of karl Lagerfeld and Hussein Chalayan, Zaha Hadid and Hariri & Hariri, but we are equally commited to the nurturing of new talent and the championing of unsung heroes, such as the costume designers profiled inside.
The publication of Salt introduces our new product brand, SWA RovSk I ELEmEnTS, which has evolved f rom CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Elements. Swarovski Elements, crystals manufactured by Swarovski, are available in a myriad of colours, effects, shapes and sizes, and have been the designer’s choice since the founding of the company in 1895. Swarovski Elements provide a fabulous palette of inspiration for designers in the worlds of creativity and design.
This magazine demonstrates the evolution of crystal from technological precision and masterful cutting to striking a chord within creative minds such as those of Lady Gaga, konstantin Grcic, Antonio Beradi and David Rockwell. We are continuously amazed by the avant-garde results of our partnerships. We hope this magazine sparks your imagination.
nadja SwarovskiCreative Director & Vice-President, International
Communications, Swarovski
CONTRIBUTORS
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BRONWYN COSGRAVE
Writer
Bronwyn Cosgrave is the author of Made For Each Other, Fashion and the Academy Awards, the first fashion history of the Academy Awards. She is also founding chair of the Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize and contributes to the international editions of Vogue and Vanity Fair.
NICK COMPTON
Writer
Nick Compton is features director of international design and lifestyle magazine Wallpaper*. He has written on business and lifestyle trends as well as design, photography, film, fashion and architecture for magazines as varied as Details, i-D, The Observer Magazine and The Independent on Sunday Magazine.
AMY RAPHAEL
Writer
Amy Raphael is a freelance writer based in Brighton. She writes for the Guardian, The Observer and The Times. She is the author of several books, including Never Mind the Bollocks: Women Rewrite Rock and Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh. Danny Boyle: In His Own Words will be published by Faber in the autumn.
HARRIET QUICK
Writer
Harriet Quick has worked for UK Vogue for the last ten years and is currently fashion features director. She was previously editor of Frank and prior to that style writer at the Guardian and the Telegraph. She is the author of Catwalking: A History of the Fashion Model, and is currently penning a novel, provisionally titled A Picaresque Journey through the Elysian Fields of Fashion.
GUY AROCH
Photographer
Israeli-born Guy Aroch moved to New York in 1990 to attend the School of Visual Arts. Specialising in beauty, fashion and celebrity photography, Aroch’s images are considered unique and beautifully lit. His work has appeared in international publications including US Vogue, GQ, Harper’s Bazaar and Details. He has also collaborated with top luxury brands, including Macy’s, Bloomingdales, L’Oréal and Sonia Rykiel.
MARCUS GAAB
Photographer
Award-winning photographer Marcus Gaab lives and works in Berlin and New York and has been working as a freelance photographer since 1996. He regularly shoots for Interview, i-D, Wallpaper*, W and V Magazine and clients include Hugo Boss and Hermès. He has exhibited his work all over Europe in venues including London’s White Cube and Found Gallery, Hamburg.
HENRY BOURNE
Photographer
Henry Bourne is a London-based photographer of portraits, travel, still life, architecture and interiors. He contributes to Arena Homme Plus, The New York Times Magazine, Numéro, Vogue, Vanity Fair and W, among others. Henry’s work has appeared in numerous exhibitions in the UK and US including DIFFA New York. His awards include a Gold Medal Photography Award for the Society of Publication Designers.
LYNDSAY MILNE MCLEOD
Set designer
Formerly a theatre set designer and senior stylist at World of Interiors, Lyndsay Milne McLeod is a freelance creative director and designer. She undertakes an eclectic mix of projects from concept to creation for photographic shoots, interior installations, retail environments, curating and exhibition design. She is a regular contributor to Wallpaper* magazine and designer of the atmospheric Jacqueline Rabun Gallery.
Salt
SHOW MEDIA +44 20 3222 0101
Ground Floor, 1-2 Ravey Street,
London EC2A 4QP
www.showmedia.net
Editor-in-Chief Peter Howarth
Art Director Ciara Walshe
Managing Editor Katie Wyartt
Project Co-ordinator Dan Bayat
Designers Helen Delany, Pete Avery
Picture Editor Anna Wilkins
Picture Research Rachel Lucas-Craig
Chief Sub-Editor Chris Madigan
Sub-Editors Ming Liu, Gill Wing
Staff writer Arabella Dickie
Fashion assistant Jessica Firth-Morais
Editorial Director Joanne Glasbey
Creative Director Ian Pendleton
SWAROVSKI COMMUNICATIONS
UNIT LONDON
Vice President International
Communications Nadja Swarovski
Corporate Communications Manager Kathrin Wesonig
Communications Executive Genevieve Beddard
Corporate Communications
Vera Klotz
SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS
Senior Vice President Marketing
Markus Lampe
Senior Communication Manager Carolin Wegerer
Salt is published in Chinese, English
and Japanese. Translation by Etymax,
www.etymax.com
Colour reproduction by FMG;
www.wearefmg.com
Printing by Granite Colour;
www.granitecolour.com
Salt is published on behalf of Swarovski AG,
Droeschistraße 15, 9495 Triesen, Principality of
Liechtenstein by Show Media. © 2010 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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B&B ITalIa sTorEs: NEw yORk | LONDON | MILAN | rome | PARIS | munich | ShANGAI | TOkyO
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award time
The 2010 CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) Fashion Awards was a star-studded event, with Gwyneth Paltrow and Sarah Jessica Parker among those on the red carpet at the 7 June event in New York. For nine years, Swarovski has played a pivotal role in the awards, underwriting the evening and sponsoring three awards. This year’s Swarovski Award for Womenswear was won by Jason Wu, while Richard Chai picked up the award for Menswear and the Swarovski Award for Accessory Design went to Alexander Wang. Each winner receives generous support from the company as well as exposure to Swarovski’s vast and innovative crystal products and applications for fashion. The set itself featured the Schonbek Olde World Chandelier, a glass-arm chandelier with the greatest number of Swarovski crystal pendants in the world.
The ColleCTion
When the CFDA nominees were announced in March 2010, Swarovski asked each nominee to design a bespoke piece, to celebrate the category for which they were nominated. Each designer transformed their vision into reality using Swarovski’s extensive and varied crystal resources. The collection will be sold with proceeds benefitting the CFDA’s educational initiatives. Director duo, Josh Melnick and Xander Charity, documented the designers’ creative journeys with a four-minute film, aptly named BRILLIANT. A visual masterpiece, the film perfectly captures the thought processes and inspiration of each young fashion talent, truly celebrating each of their unique personalities. BRILLIANT debuted at the CFDA Fashion Awards ceremony on 7 June in New York City. swarovski.tv/cfda
tHe CUt
SwarovSki SToriES from around ThE globE STarTing wiTh a nighT of TruE glamour in nEw York
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AMERICAN BEAUTYFashion and glamour at the CFDA Fashion Awards in New York in June, featuring pieces from the collection by CFDA nominees, utilising Swarovski crystal, by: 1. Alexander Wang; 2. Patrick Ervel; 3. Joseph Altuzarra; 4. Prabal Gurung; 5. Dana Lorenz.6. Swarovski award nominees Jason Wu, Richard Chai, Alexander Wang; 7. Diane von Furstenberg with Nadja Swarovski;
8. Christopher Bailey and Donna Karan; 9. Peter Som and Amanda Hearst; 10. Marc Jacobs and Jessica Biel; 11. Ashley & Mary- Kate Olsen; 12. Alexa Chung; 13. Gwyneth Paltrow with Michael Kors; 14. David Bowie and wife Iman; 15. Sarah Jessica Parker; 16. the final Alexander McQueen collection presented at the CFDA Fashion Awards; 17. Italo Zucchelli and Dree Hemingway
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THE CUT
it’s been a year of Lights, camera and action for swarovski
When The Black Eyed Peas took to the stage for their 2010 The E.N.D world tour, all eyes were on frontwoman Fergie and her Swarovski crystal-encrusted bodysuit. ‘We incorporated crystals to give a 3D feel to the costumes and make them come alive,’ said celebrity stylist B Akerlund, who was enlisted to create a futuristic, sci-fi look for the band’s most ambitious tour to date. British designer Amy Thompson was the brainchild behind Fergie’s plastic sculpted costume – created in homage to Swiss surrealist HR Giger – while Akerlund embellished the finer details with Swarovski crystals ‘to accent the contours of her body’. Nine of the band’s outfits in total were created in collaboration with Swarovski, the most time-consuming of which was band member Will.i.am’s military-style jacket, built up with 18 layers of crystal mesh. Akerlund’s client list also includes Justin Timberlake, Madonna and Lady Gaga, for whom she designed the crystal-studded wheelchair that featured in the star’s eyebrow-raising Paparazzi music video.
CEnTrE sTagE
As part of the company’s support for emerging design talent, Swarovski CRySTALLiZED™ collaborated with Volt magazine and fashion website FTape.com on a unique art exhibition at the Swarovski CRySTALLiZED™ café in London. To mark the launch of Volt Man and London Fashion Week 2010, FTape.com commissioned eight of the UK’s most promising young designers to transform iconic Volt covers using Swarovski Elements and their own signature material. Designs included an exuberant gold and silver tasselled creation by Gareth Pugh protégé Craig Lawrence; a jewel-encrusted graphic masterpiece by Holly Fulton, who won the 2009 CFDA Swarovski Emerging Talent award at the British Fashion Awards; and London College of Fashion graduate Manjit Deu’s intricately layers of sequins encrusted with crystals. The one-off pieces were on public display until March, after which an online auction was held on FTape.com. The proceeds went to the eight designers as financial support for their autumn/winter collections. swarovski-crystallized.com/volt
CovEr sTars
Last year, UNiCEF UK Ambassador Claudia Schiffer joined Nadja Swarovski at London’s Mandarin Oriental to illuminate a traffic-stopping five-metre tall Swarovski Crystal Snowflake over the streets of Knightsbridge. Made of 10,000 Swarovski crystals, the sculpture was created by German lighting designer ingo Maurer to raise awareness and funds for underprivileged children during the holidays. For 2010 Swarovski will once again pledge its support for UNiCEF by hosting an intimate charity dinner in November. Claudia Schiffer will also put her creative talents to use by designing a limited-edition bracelet for Atelier Swarovski, to be sold during the event and at selected Swarovski stores. The goal of the night is to raise over £100,000 to support UNiCEF in its bid to provide clean drinking water for children across the globe.
snow sHow
From top: Swarovski collaborator Claudia Schiffer; Fergie, of The Black Eyed Peas, sports a costume encrusted with Swarovski Elements; Holly Fulton’s version of the Volt cover
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As hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were lowered onto the stage on a crystal-encrusted swing to open the show beneath a glittering 18m-high proscenium arch, no one could accuse this year’s Academy Awards ceremony of lacking sparkle. In fact, the entire Oscars evening was a genuinely glittering occasion – mixing glamour with artistic achievement, laughter with heartfelt emotion, theatre with fashion. And much of the credit for creating this spectacular mix must go to set designer David Rockwell.
For the second year running, the acclaimed architect and designer transformed the event at Los Angeles’ Kodak Theatre (which Rockwell also designed back in 2001) from a formal performance into an engaging, dynamic occasion, bringing the audience up close to the stage and re-creating a classic variety-show atmosphere. ‘The history of the Oscars was about a one-night party, not three-and-a-half hours of speeches,’ says Rockwell. ‘I wanted to push up the sense of occasion and celebration and have one extraordinary piece of jewellery that would be right in the spirit of the bling of the evening.’
That extraordinary piece was the stunning Swarovski Crystal Curtain, which had made its debut at the 2009 event. Made from 6,000 one metre-long hand-crafted crystal strands, this year’s rendition included a topaz-coloured fringe in keeping with the modernist vibe. Rockwell added a series of complementary curtains on the side of the stage for greater intimacy, as well as the swing – all produced using more than 100,000 Swarovski crystals.
‘The aim was to create a sense of wonder and magic, and the crystal curtain was one of the key ways of doing that. Crystal is endlessly fascinating: as it moves, it changes the light that it throws off,’ explains the 54-year-old father of two. This combination of movement and light is a signature of much of Rockwell’s work, stemming from his early stint as an assistant lighting director on Broadway. ‘Sparkle is incredibly important in the theatre, otherwise the eye tends to fall asleep, but this is sparkle pushed to the extreme!’
Rockwell trained as an architect in New York and London, but has never been restricted by the traditional parameters of that discipline. Instead he has built the hugely successful Rockwell Group on a multi-disciplinary approach. It means his work takes in corporate buildings, restaurants, hotel interiors, airport terminals, retail outlets, movies, public playgrounds, hospitals, art installations and live events, as well as theatrical set design.
Demonstrating such variety and versatility – both in disciplinary terms and also in execution and style – is central to the company’s success, according to Rockwell: ‘I think being able to visit a world – doing work in theatre, for instance, but not having to drive my business by doing 10 shows a year – is really helpful in keeping the work fresh. The key is staying curious and doing projects where I don’t know the answer before I begin.’
A transient childhood spent in the likes of Chicago, New Jersey and Guadalajara in Mexico also informed his love of ‘the transformability of public space – the way things can change’. It mean s Rockwell is as interested in transitory architecture and design as he is in its traditional, permanent forms.
His collaborations with Swarovski have encapsulated this diversity, beginning in 2005 with the creation of a chandelier for the Design Miami exhibition in Florida. Since then they have enjoyed a fruitful working relationship – including a new product currently under development – with the Oscars projects a highlight. ‘Swarovski was incredibly collaborative and smart about getting the curtain built,’ says Rockwell.
The designer’s current slate of projects is typically eclectic: a hotel in Paris for long-time client W, the public spaces for the New York Jets-Giants football stadium, the theatrical debut of new play A Free Man Of Colour and the culmination of his most personal project, the Imagination Playground in Manhattan, which finally opens this summer. But will he – and the stunning Swarovski curtain – be back at the Oscars in 2011? ‘Anything’s possible,’ says a smiling Rockwell. ‘But right now I’m still revelling in it working this year!’swarovski.tv
William Drew is former editor of Arena and contributing editor of LUXX
Curtain Call David Rockwell’s shimmering set for this year’s
Oscars was so dramatic, it almost stole the show wORDS William Drew
Designer David Rockwell and Swarovski have collaborated on high-profile projects, including, clockwise from top right: the Oscar Curtain 2010; the Ames Hotel Boston; the Fire & Smoke Chandelier at Nobu Fifty Seven New York. Opposite, bottom left: David Rockwell in 2009
‘Sparkle is incredibly important in the theatre, otherwise the eye tends to fall asleep, but this is sparkle pushed to the extreme!’
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Trunk call
Swarovski’s new flagship store in the heart of Vienna is a visual wonder as eye-catching as the crystals it showcases. Dreamt up by Tyrolean architects Hanno Schloegl and Daniel Suess, the modernised 19th century industrial building offers a combined retail and theatrical exhibition space over three light-filled floors. An illuminated, exterior façade – studded with thousands of crystals and LED lights – offers passers-by a kaleidoscopic light display, while giant glass cubes protrude onto the street to exhibit several multimedia installations by Belgian artist Arne Quinze. The interior is just as impressive; highlights include a 3m high ‘Cascade’ chandelier by Vincent van Duizen and a reflective wall of 16,000 moving octagonal mirrors, conceived by Japanese artist Tokujin Yoshioka. The giant mosaic links three levels of Swarovski’s complete product range, including jewellery, fashion and interior design. Customers are invited to unleash their creativity on Swarovski’s customisable jewellery at the In-Store Boutique of Swarovski CrYSTALLIzED™. swarovski.com/wien
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Clockwise from top: The Heroic Trio dress; Swarovski’s new Vienna store; ‘Pearly Prince’ by SHO Fine Jewellery; ‘Manasuna’ by Johnny Rocket and Sunny Warrington
In March, Swarovski Elements joined forces with fashion label rodarte for a unique charity initiative in aid of UNICEF. The project, in collaboration with luxury Hong Kong retailer Joyce and acclaimed Chinese actress Maggie Cheung, saw rodarte founders Kate and Laura Mulleavy design four one-off dresses featuring Swarovski Elements for a silent auction at the Joyce flagship store. Each dress – unveiled to the public at an in-store exhibition – paid homage to Cheung by referencing one of the actress’s on-screen characters from four of her films: In the Mood for Love, Hero, Clean and The Heroic Trio. The international film star, who won a Cannes best actress award for her role in Clean, was recently appointed a UNICEF Ambassador in China. The week-long auction culminated in an exclusive cocktail party attended by many local and international A-listers, and featured a short film by Hong Kong-based photographer and director Wing Shya. Shanghai singer rebecca Pan and American songwriter Jenny Lewis also performed at the charity event, helping to raise a total of more than HKD500,000 for UNICEF.
chinese characTers
Hong kong fasHIon, eLepHanTs In London and a vIennese fLagsHIp
In May, a herd of elephants arrived in London. The city’s largest-ever public art
exhibition, the Elephant Parade, organised by the World Land Trust conservation
charity, saw over 250 1.4m-high fibreglass creatures inhabit popular landmarks as part
of a campaign to raise awareness of the critically endangered Asian elephant. The
sculptures were hand-decorated by world-class creatives, including Sunny Warrington and rock ’n’ roll jewellery
designer Johnny rocket, who swathed his giant in a dazzling Swarovski crystal
Indian-inspired floral motif. His ‘Manasuna’ elephant was displayed in the historical
Burlington Arcade. SHO Fine Jewellery also collaborated with Swarovski, Sarah Ho
taking more than 480 hours to embellish her aptly named Pearly Prince elephant with
13,000 crystals and 11,000 crystal pearls. One side of the sculpture features a jewel-
encrusted skeleton as a frank reminder of the species’ ever-dwindling population. In July,
Sotheby’s auctioned off the elephants and all proceeds were donated to the Elephant
Family charity, founded by the writer and conservationist Mark Shand.
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THE CUT
In 1926, Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel revolutionised women’s
fashion with a remarkably simple calf-length black dress.
American Vogue showcased her design under the headline
‘Chanel’s Ford’ – a reference to Henry Ford’s mass-produced
automobiles. Like his Model T car, the dress was affordable,
an instant hit, and came in only one colour: black.
Prior to the Twenties, black was reserved for periods of
mourning, yet Chanel’s form-fitting new style was to become
a symbol of liberation and le dernier mot in sophisticated
elegance. More than 80 years on and the ‘little black dress’
remains the perennial staple of every woman’s wardrobe – and
one that has been tirelessly reinvented by the fashion industry
every season throughout the decades.
Yet rarely has the range of design possibilities it inspires been
more celebrated than by Swarovski, which last year invited 22
designers – both leading international figures and emerging
creative talents – to reinterpret it in their own signature styles
with Swarovski Elements. Among the designers from France,
Italy, the UK and USA were Sonia Rykiel, Alberta Ferretti, Jean
Paul Gaultier, Diane von Furstenberg and Donna Karan.
The 22 Ways to Say Black couture collection was unveiled in
January at Paris’s prestigious Palazzo Pozzo di Borgo, Karl
Lagerfeld’s former residence, in front of media representatives
and prominent fashion figures, including the editor of French
Vogue, Carine Roitfeld. And, as one would expect, the results
were nothing less than spectacular.
‘Couture is the purest expression of a fashion designer’s art’,
said Giorgio Armani, talking about his dazzling crystal-
encrusted sleeveless gown. ‘It’s an opportunity to explore the
possibilities of fashion without commercial constraints.’
Other show-stopping creations included a Vivienne Westwood
taffeta cocktail dress with crystal mesh peplums, a delicate
silk shift with a briolette crystal wire collar by Valentino, and
Martin Grant’s figure-hugging short-sleeved gown swathed in
crystals to imitate the jewel-like texture of a stingray’s skin.
The touring exhibition left Paris for Beijing in April, and will
culminate in a fundraising finale in New York in September.
Hosting the event will be celebrated auctioneer Phillips de Pury
& Company, renowned for its expertise in avant-garde design.
All proceeds from the auction and accompanying catalogue
will be donated to the American Cancer Society and la Ligue
nationale contre le cancer in France.
swarovski-elements.com/black
Arabella Dickie is a contributor to the ST Fashion magazine
BLACK BEAUTIES 22 top designers
were asked to reinterpret the little black dress –
and even Coco Chanel would have approved of
the results WORDS Arabella Dickie
THE NEW BLACKCoco Chanel puts the finishing touch to a new creation, 1959. Opposite page, from left 3.1 Phillip Lim; Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci; Martin Grant
Middle row, from left Catherine Malandrino; Lanvin by Alber Elbaz; Sonia Rykiel Bottom row, from left Diane von Furstenberg; Thakoon; Giorgio Armani Privé
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London Flagship Store: late night opening to 20.00 every Thursday
London Flagship Store:
199 Shaftesbury Avenue
T 020 7631 2345
Molteni&C Agency:
T 01484 711788
www.molteni.it
Designed by Patricia Urquiola, Sequence
is a perfect example of technological home
architecture design. Symmetry, asymmetry,
and luminosity in a lightweight,
rock-solid structure of stunning beauty.
Sequence system and Night&Day sofa:
design Patricia Urquiola
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THE CUT
The latest jewellery collaboration from
Swarovski CrySTallized™ brings
together 18 world-famous designers
and features precision-cut crystals,
colourful crystal beads and lustrous
pearls. each piece is embellished with
light-filled Swarovski Elements.
Key collaborators this year include
Jacques Fath and Jean Paul Gaultier,
whose ‘Medieval Chic’ approach is
pictured left. a natural experimentalist
famed for his irreverent style and
spontaneity, Gaultier has mixed the
rusticity of chain mail with the sparkling
delicacy of crystal to create a timeless,
feminine collection of edgy necklaces,
colliers and bracelets.
On the following two pages, we break
down the latest trends and see how
various designers have created
complementary pieces which perfectly
echo the key catwalk trends for a/W10.
The collection is available now in
Swarovski CrySTallized™ concept
stores and can also be found online at
swarovski-crystallized.com
COLLABORATING DESIGNERS
Swarovski CryStallized™ collaborated with
the following for this year’s collection: andrea
Mader / anton Heunis / Ben amun / Catherine
Malandrino / Crystal evolution by Bella r /
dimitriadis / dori Csengeri / Jacques Fath /
Jean Paul Gaultier / Martin Churba / Martine
Wester / On aura tout Vu / Philippe Ferrandis /
rodrigo Otazu / Sahani / Shourouk / tatiana
arrigoni / tom Shot
PERFECT maTChES Key pieces and trends come
together in a jewellery collaboration collection, inspired by the catwalks PHOTOGRAPHY Beate Sonnenberg
24
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2 OrANGe COUNTy
The future is bright, the future is
orange. This vibrant hue made a flash
in London, Paris and New York
Bright orange makes a stark contrast
to the season’s dark tailoring. The
colour popped up in denim at Stella
McCartney, in quirky cool separates
at Charles Anastase, and made a
top-to-toe statement in luxe silk and
leather dresses at Bottega Veneta.
If this look-at-me hue is not your call,
work its fiery magic in accessories
instead. We love this Dimitriadis
Swarovski CrySTAllIzeD™ orange
and semi-precious stone crystal
necklace. It has a magnetic energy that
really works autumn’s zingiest colour.
1 GIANT GeMS
Gems are super-sized for A/W10.
Forget discreet jewels and wear your
adornments big and beautiful
lanvin led the way with door-knocker
sized necklaces set high on the
collarbone festooned with chain and
crystal. At ySl chains get even more
supersized, with huge pendants
swinging from low-slung gold chains.
rodrigo Otazu works this trend with
this silver-plated, multi-strand
necklace, made with Swarovski
elements. Wear long and low à la
ySl with simple black tailoring for
full-on glamour.
3 TAIlOr-MADe
The biggest trend from the front lines
of A/W10? Tailoring. Be it Helmut
Newton Seventies-style trouser suits
or mannish tuxedos, the suit is back
Clean lines broke the mould this
season with strong masculine tailoring
seen everywhere – most notably from
Céline, Stella McCartney, Diane von
Furstenberg and Balenciaga. The
refined sophistication of the Crystal
evolution by Bella r Swarovski
CrySTAllIzeD™ pieces sum up
this feeling of grace and structure.
you can work your tailoring like a
man, but accessorise like a woman.
4 lUCK Be A lADy
Fashion has gone mad for Mad Men
style. Think womanly wasp waists and
Fifties silhouettes – all served up with a
dash of 2010 downtown cool
Prada, Dolce & Gabbana and Dries
van Noten paid homage to the sexy
secretary, and what better to way to
accent this bombshell look than with
strings of pearls, designed to sit neatly
into the collar of your twin set. These
retro-style pieces by Jacques Fath
embody the demure sensibility of the
Fifties and Sixties with their pearl and
crystal clusters. yet, their multi-strand
arrangements have a 21st century-
edge when teamed with grey marl
sweatshirts and Fifties-style dance
skirts à la Dries van Noten.
get glamorous The catwalk trends for A/W10 – and
the Swarovski CrySTAllized™ pieces to make you really stand out WORDS Ruth Griffin
6 DIVINE EXCESSFashion worshipped the altar
of the divine, mixing western and
eastern religious imagery for A/W10
The final collection from fashion’s
undisputed emperor, Alexander
McQueen, was mind-blowingly poetic.
Inspired by medieval art and religious
iconography, the late British designer
felt the power of things ecclesiastical.
This Sailing to Byzantium feeling was
also captured at Dolce & Gabbana
with their golden religious medals
dripping from accessories. With this
look, Dori Csengeri’s Swarovski
CrySTAllIzeD™ collection works the
divine with lavish drop crystal earrings
and crystal medallions fit for any
high-church angel. Hallelujah.
MIX AND MATCH 1 ‘Cascade’ necklace by Rodrigo Otazu; catwalk looks from Lanvin (right) & YSL (left); Miu Miu shoe. 2 ‘Cluster’ bracelet and collier by Dimitriadis; catwalk look by Stella McCartney; Miu Miu bag. 3 Crystal Evolution by Bella R ‘Mushroom’ ring;
Balenciaga (left) and Stella McCartney (right) catwalk looks. 4 ‘Bel du Soir’ colliers by Jacques Fath; Dries van Noten catwalk look; Louis Vuitton shoe. 5 ‘Power Blum’ necklace by Tatiana Arrigoni; ‘Titanic’ ring by Tom Shot, Balmain catwalk
look; Derek Lam boot. 6 ‘Amour’ necklace and earrings by Dori Csengeri; catwalk look by Alexander McQueen. 7 ‘Silver Screen Sci-Fi’ bangle by Anton Heunis (left); ‘Zale’ ring by Sahani (right); catwalk looks by Chanel. 8 ‘Star’ bangle by
Ben Amun (top); ‘Zenn’ earrings by Philippe Ferrandis (bottom); catwalk looks by Christopher Kane (top) and Rodarte (bottom)
All jewellery made with Swarovski Elements, part of the Swarovski CRYSTALLIZED™ collection A/W10
5 BArOQUe ‘N’ rOll
Pump up the pomp this autumn
and lavish in the beautiful, with rococo
flourishes and a golden touch
Sleek minimalism will always see a
glorious backlash. So if you’re one to
indulge in decadence, don’t hold
back this A/W10 and pile on the
drama. Balmain lead the way with a
divine collection rich in brocade,
velvet, Seventies pantsuits and lamé
gowns. Put everything on display and
be sure to accentuate décolletage
to the max. The Swarovski
CrySTAllIzeD™ offerings from
Tatiana Arrigoni and Tom Shot are
gloriously glam rock. layer up the
gold and bathe in the glow.
7 ICe MAIDeN
With temperatures dropping,
think clear, cool colour palettes,
transparencies and full-on faux
fur this A/W10
Chanel led the fashion expedition
this season with a show on ice.
The catwalk was a frozen landscape
around which models walked in
shaggy snow boots and ice-block
heels through a sea of melting ice.
Work the look with Anton Heunis and
Sahani Swarovski CrySTAllIzeD™
pieces. Their ice-crystal deco-like
rings, long chains and bracelets with
crystalline forms are ice, ice baby.
8 STAr QUAlITy
Glitter into the next season with pretty
crystal embellishment. Forget stars
and stripes – florals and intricate
detailing reign supreme this season
Time to throw minimalism aside –
crystal embellishment was sprinkled
abundantly over the autumn/winter
2010 collections. Star-burst
embroideries and crystal studs
decorated dresses at Christopher
Kane, and rodarte saw star-studded
crystals glimmering on transparent
tulle trousers. Jewellery designers
Philippe Ferrandis and Ben Amun
have worked the trend du jour for
Swarovski CrySTAllIzeD™ with the
prettiest crystal star bracelets and
long, glittering, dangling earrings.
ANTHeA SIMMS; CATWAlKING.COM
other sponsorships swarovski elements Application rooms allow upcoming talents to develop innovative ideas in jewellery, fashion and interior design using crystal elements and specialist equipment provided by swarovski. the application centres are found all over the world: Donghua University, shanghai; shenkar College, israel; istituto Marangoni, Milan; royal College of Art, London; and the Universität für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna. the company has also sponsored the Festival international de Mode et de photographie in France and its#nine in italy, affording many a young designer the opportunity to have their work evaluated by a panel of renowned jurors. Finalists are invited to use swarovski elements in their designs, and a number of students are offered the chance to work as interns at swarovski’s headquarters.
27
For eight years, Swarovski has been challenging the first-year jewellery students at Central Saint Martins in London to create jewellery based on chosen themes incorporating the most original use of Swarovski Elements. This year there were nine prizes in total and the winners were chosen by a panel of judges, including Swarovski’s creative director and vice-president of international communication, Nadja Swarovski, and her team, plus jewellery designer Ana de Costa, a former Central Saint Martins student.
Vicky Lew won first prize in this year’s competition with her necklace of swirling rich green organza studded with sparkling crystals. When asked what inspired her design, Lew explains: ‘When I came to work on the concept, I was feeling homesick for Malaysia, where I’m from, and the thing I missed most was the tropical rain.’
The choice of techniques used was deliberate. ‘The necklace is mixed media, to represent the range of feelings homesickness evokes,’ says Lew. And the main ribbon was chosen for its tactile qualities: ‘I wanted to have the softening effect of organza to act as a metaphor for the rain.’
A mesh of 400 smoky quartz Swarovski Elements sinuously curve around the ribbon, which is adorned, in turn, with green crystals and sterling-silver nuggets. An extra touch of sparkle comes from
the faceted chatons that the designer set into the nuggets. The entire piece is held together with tiny, invisible stitches. The colours suggest rainfall, puddles and earth, as well as the lushness and vegetation of Malaysia. The young designer’s background in embroidery is evident in the piece. At a young age Lew began embellishing shoes for her father, who is a footwear designer, and later, she worked at the fashion house Juicy Couture. She welcomed the freedom the competition presented, as it allowed her to experiment with textiles and move away from metalwork. ‘For my course, I use metals a lot, but rarely mixed media,’ says Lew. ‘As for the Swarovski Elements, they are such an amazing material to use as the sparkle is incredible. I will certainly consider using them in my work in the future.’
Ana de Costa, a Central Saint Martins alumni and also a former Swarovski Runway Rocks designer, was one of the judges for the award. ‘We chose Vicky’s piece because it was so beautifully put together and made with such unusual techniques but, at the same time, totally wearable,’ said de Costa. ‘It was the most commercially viable piece, too. I could imagine wearing it on a night out or, equally, during the day with jeans.’
Maria Doulton is a contributor to Wallpaper* and Vanity Fair
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EYES on THE PrizE A competition for Central
Saint Martins students to design jewellery incorporating
Swarovski Elements WORDS Maria Doulton PHOTOGRAPHY Greg Funnell
BUDDING TALENTSNadja Swarovski (far left) with co-judge Ana de Costa; winner Vicky Lew (below); winning and commended pieces by (from top)Nina van Houten, Vicky Lew, Ji Sun Chae
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in designer hussein Chalayan’s autumn/winter
2010 collection is one extraordinary piece. The
draped dress portrays a powerful narrative of a road
trip in a pattern made entirely of crystals interlinked
by hand. The imagined view is that of a driver as
dusk falls. Colours melt into one another, from the
burning amber of traffic lights to the white glare of
headlights to the glistening black of Tarmac.
Chalayan has captured the loneliness and romance
of a long-distance trip in a manner rarely seen other
than on celluloid.
The dress is one of many startlingly beautiful pieces
the london-based Turkish-Cypriot designer has
conceived using swarovski elements over the past
five years. Such projects are the perfect challenge
for him – a melding of his poetic sensibility and
highly technical approach. ‘When I first thought
about working with crystals, i was scared,’ the
designer admits. ‘i couldn’t see through the glitz. i
wanted an angle that suited my way of working, a
perspective that was unique. With so many different
cuts and colours, there’s such a dazzling array of
choice that it’s mind-boggling. Crystal can be in
dust form, in jet, in pearlised finishes – the
possibilities are infinite.’
The same can be said of Chalayan’s a/W collection.
Precise and clean-cut in style, it reflects the current
mood for ‘real clothes’. Charcoal cashmere coats,
chic jackets and lean skirts married with oversized
sou’wester hats suggest creative confidence. And
the swarovski elements are integral to that aesthetic,
evoking a thoughtful, low-key glamour that suits
sober times. But, in his use of the crystals, the
designer goes beyond mere decorative potential,
digging deep into their possibil ities in both
application and effect.
Throughout his career, Chalayan has constantly
baffled and amazed. He is the designer’s designer
– thanks to a highly disciplined mind, he can apply
himself as brilliantly to 3D, film, architecture and
product design as to the bedrock of his business.
his vision incorporates dna sequencing, religious
identity, anthropology, climate change… and this
multidisciplinary approach is refreshing in an
industry that can be notoriously myopic. To date,
his skill and daring has won him two British designer
of the year awards and an MBe.
The astonishing aeroplane wing studded with
crystal and led lights that Chalayan created for
swarovski Crystal Palace stunned the
design world when it was revealed at the
design Miami exhibition in 2006, and
garnered acclaim from Zaha hadid and
ron arad. in the One Hundred and
Eleven collection of the same year, which
took as its subject evolution, he looked
back over 111 years of dress. ‘i wanted
to examine how body shape changes
according to the politics of the world –
how empowerment in the post-war
pe r iod was expressed th rough
exaggerated shoulders, for instance,’ he
explained. ‘i was also interested in how
the use and even shape of crystal
embellishment had altered to suit the
era. I created a special flint-shaped cut
based on the early cutting tools of the
hunting man to represent the early part
of our evolution.’
in 2009, an exhibition at the design
Museum in london exposed Chalayan
to a new audience. stand-out pieces
included airborne (from his a/W07
collection), a dress embedded with
swarovski crystal illuminated by 15,000
flickering leds. and the afterwords
Collection (A/W00) featured fibreglass
dresses with panels, which not only lifted
gracefully at the flick of a switch to reveal
gently gathered tulle petticoats, but the
dresses would also morph into chairs,
tables and suitcases.
season after season, one never fails to
be astounded at the audacity of
Chalayan’s thinking. his spring/summer
2009 collection was an exploration of
climate change, how that affects the
body politic and the way we move in
increasingly volatile conditions. Beautiful
jet-crystal glazed sleeves fused into
tailored pieces, samurai-like helmets with
remote-control panels that lifted and
rotated in response to different weather
conditions were big ideas. ‘i’ve learnt
from each project,’ says Chalayan. ‘One
has always enriched the next. and i’m a
harsh self-critic.’
Harriet Quick is the fashion features director
of Vogue
THE imaginariUm of mr CHalayan The designer always
has surprises up his brilliantly crazy-looking sleeve; this season his vision hits
the road WORDS Harriet Quick
Ju
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29
ENLIGHTEN ME Past and present collections of the experimental designer Hussein Chalayan (far left) have made use of LED lights and Swarovski Elements (clockwise, from right) the A/W07, A/W08, A/W10 and S/S08 shows
In Chalayan’s use of crystals, the designer goes beyond mere decorative potential, digging deep into their possibilities
Launched in London, Shanghai and New York, Swarovski CrYStaLLized™ concept stores are a unique playground for fashion-forward clients, offering exquisite jewellery and accessories created by renowned designers using Swarovski elements. they also have in-store cafés with a crystal-bedecked bar. Prestigious brands including MaC and Giles deacon have already called upon Swarovski’s connections in design, retail and culture to bring them a unique experience, and now, for 2010, Swarovski has partnered with FBC (Fashion Business Club), to host six events in the café to bring together home-grown and international fashion professionals, as well as guest speakers in an informal social environment. ‘the Swarovski CrYStaLLized™ lounge is the one space that our members have been wildly enthusiastic about,’ said FBC co-founder Courtney Blackman. ‘the synergy between what FBC does and the way in which the Swarovski CrYStaLLized™ lounge has been created couldn’t be more harmonious.’ swarovski-crystallized.com
high concept
30
a pair of glittering Viktor & rolf heels and a crystal-encrusted Samsonite trunk were just two of the star
exhibits on display at Swarovski’s recent Crystal Loves Leather exhibition at the tassenmuseum in amsterdam.
the show-stopping collection, housed in the city’s Museum of Bags and Purses, was the product of
Swarovski’s collaboration with leading fashion brands and up-and-coming avant-garde designers, who were invited to turn their creative skills to new methods of
applying Swarovski elements onto fine leather, including the innovative Flat Back and Chaton Leather
techniques, which allow for the application of crystals onto smooth leather. More than 40 designers, including Lulu Guinness, Hugo Boss and Stuart Weitzman, rose
to the challenge with an eye-catching collection of crystal-studded bags, hats and footwear. attention was also paid to Swarovski’s 115-year history, with unique,
usually archived accessories on display. Crystal Loves Leather first debuted at Le Musée des arts décoratifs -
Palais du Louvre and has since toured antwerp, New York, Milan and Beijing. tassenmuseum.nl
Bag it up
in May this year, flamboyant couturier duo, Luke Sales and anna Plunkett, built a glittering wonderland to showcase the latest collection
from their vibrant australian label, romance Was Born. Spangled jewellery and accessories dripping with Swarovski elements were teamed
with psychedelic cat suits, fluorescent headdresses and bejewelled face masks, and paraded down the crystal-strewn catwalk for Sydney Fashion
Week’s most ambitious show. the extravaganza – quirkily entitled ‘renaissance dinosaur’ – was inspired by the Jurassic era and the creative
explosion that was the rennaisance. it starred more collaborators than any other season, including artist Kate rohde, who created mutant
dino-hybrid sculptures, shoe designer, terry Biviano, and long-time collaborator, Paul Bonomoelli, whose meticulously handcrafted one-off accessories, made from metals, resins and Swarovski elements, adorned
the necks and wrists of the models. swarovski-elements.com
catwalk carnival
Top to bottom: clutch by Stuart Weitzman; London’s Swarovski CRYSTALLIZED™ concept store; the Renaissance Dinosaur catwalk
CrystaLs on Leather, in ConCept stores and on the sydney CatwaLk
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Available at: Barney’s, New York, Lane Crawford, Hong Kong, Boutique 1, Dubai & Beirut www.gaiagino.com
“Eye” by Sebastian Bergne
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33
HELLO, BOYS Opposite: Tuxedo
jacket by 3.1 Phillip Lim, shirt by John
Lawrence Sullivan. This page:
Red jacket (top and bottom) by
Wacko Maria
starry knights Who says guys can’t sparkle? The
new menswear says getting dressed up in glitz and glam is no longer just for the girls WORDS Robert Johnston PHOTOGRAPHY Tim Zaragoza FASHION Allan Kennedy
It was in the Seventies that sparkle became cool,
thanks to the likes of David Bowie, who realised that
rock would benefit from a dash of theatre and a
healthy helping of glamour. This tradition has
continued up to the present day, with Brandon
Flowers of The Killers being the most recent heir to
Bowie’s crown.
But now the peacocks are stepping down from the
stage and onto the high street, thanks to Swarovski.
The company’s long association with fashion
designers is well known. The likes of Hussein
Chalayan, Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld and
Giles Deacon have created striking womenswear
featuring Swarovski Elements.
Now it’s the boys’ turn. This year saw the launch of
Swarovski Elements menswear initiative featuring
pieces by Lanvin, Phillip Lim, John Lawrence
Sullivan and the UK’s Joe Casely-Hayford, as well
as ultra-cool Japanese designers like Keiji Ishizuka
and Atsuhiko Mori, the brains behind fashion label
Wacko Maria. The resulting collection consists of
both apparel and accessories, and shows that the
guys can out-glitz the girls any day of the week.
Such overt display may seem very modern, but the
truth is it has been ever thus. For most of history,
men were as keen to get dressed up as the fairer
sex – it’s just that, for the past two centuries, men
in the Western world have had a hypocritical
relationship with fashion. On the one hand, it has
been considered somehow unmasculine to be eye-
catching; on the other, the most over-ornamented
men – matadors and the military – have been by far
the most masculine.
Take the 11th Hussars of Charge of the Light Brigade
fame – their nickname was the Cherry Pickers,
partly referring to the colour of their extremely tight
trousers. Indeed, their colonel, Lord Cardigan,
insisted his boys were the flashiest on parade. But,
on civvy street, the closest a man could come to
this sort of exuberance would have been an
amethyst tie pin.
My own first tentative step towards glitz
came in late 1999. Having been invited
to a lavish Millennium Eve dinner – all foie
gras and Chateau d’Yquem – I decided
to dress the part. So I invested in a daring
bugle-bead encrusted black dinner
shirt from Richard James. Everyone
commented on it.
Today it wouldn’t even cause an eyelid
to bat. Evenings are now very much an
excuse for men to dress up, and brands
such as Dolce & Gabbana have made
formal an excuse for fancy. And thank
heavens for that – because, if the future
looks as bleak as it does right now, what
better way can men cheer themselves
up than by putting a little sparkle into
their lives?
The latest use for Swarovski Elements
has been to adorn a new generation of
Morris dancer outfits to promote the
cable-TV channel Blighty. And if Morris
dancers can sparkle, anyone can.
swarovski-elements.com
Robert Johnston is associate editor of GQ
The collection consists of both apparel and accessories, and shows that guys can out-glitz girls any day of the week
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34
SwarovSki on the podium, on Stage and in print
In December the publication of Swarovski
Crystal palace will be celebrated at Design Miami. The impressive coffee table book
celebrates nine glorious years of Swarovski Crystal Palace, a revolutionary platform that
creates signature interpretations of sculptural designs using crystal. Launched in 2002 at the Salone del Mobile, the ongoing scheme has commissioned such noteworthy design talents as Ron Arad, Zaha Hadid and Ross
Lovegrove to reinvent the traditional notion of the classic chandelier using crystal and the
latest technology. The platform, while celebrating the rich history of design, has broken barriers, re-interpreted rules and
created a new stage for the world of lighting, art and design. After outlining a brief history
of Swarovski, the book then tells the individual stories of the Crystal Palace
designers. We follow the journeys of their creations, and see them on display in such
venues as the Salone del Mobile and Design Miami, as well as in museums, galleries and
within the homes of celebrities.
DEsign BoUnD
Never to be upstaged, Swarovski crystals have put in a dazzling performance alongside the Phantom of the Opera for Lord Lloyd Webber’s latest musical triumph, Love never dies. The precious stones play an integral role in the sequel, which is set in 1900s Coney Island, 10 years after the disappearance of the Phantom from Paris. Award-winning costume designer Bob Crowley worked with nearly 300,000 Swarovski crystals to dress the leading ladies, while Martin Adams, the film industry’s top jewellery designer, created dramatic turn-of-the-century-style pieces to complement the script. The climax of the show sees the infatuated Phantom present Christine with a breathtaking choker, made with over 900 hand-set Swarovski crystals, 44 briolettes and three pendant pearls. ‘You just can’t mistake the fire and sparkle of a Swarovski crystal,’ says Adams, who spent over three weeks creating this pièce de résistance. ‘The necklace reflects the degree of the Phantom’s devotion, and for that reason it had to be utterly magnificent.’
a nigHT aT THE opEra
From top: Georg Baldele’s sparkling ‘Glitterbox Lantern’ podium; the choker centrepiece from Love Never Dies; Swarovski Crystal Palace book
In 2009, award-winning art director John Sabato called upon Swarovski to bring a sparkling dimension to the 14th annual Art Directors Guild awards, held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. It was the first year Swarovski had supported the ceremony – hosted by comedian and author Paula Poundstone – as the official Set & Décor Sponsor. Taking Hollywood’s reputation for glittering award shows to a new extreme, Sabato incorporated over half a million Swarovski crystals into the set design. The stage shone with over 200ft of cut-crystal strands, vast swathes of crystal-mesh sheets, and a sprawling gold web embedded with 3,500 crystals. However, the showpiece on stage was the ‘Glitterbox Lantern’ podium, formed from crystal prisms and lit from within by an LED light bar. Georg Baldele, who designed the illuminated lanterns for Swarovski Crystal Palace, described them as a ‘huge block of ice, shimmering from the inside out.’
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On Oscar night in March, ryan seacrest, host of
e! television network’s Live from the Red Carpet,
kicked off his show by summing up why, year after
year, the world’s most gifted fashion designers
and sought-after jewellers have vied to dress
the ceremony’s nominees and presenters. As e!’s
roving camera captured celebrities on the red
carpet leading into Hollywood’s Kodak theatre,
seacrest declared, ‘We are being watched in 180
million households worldwide, in 120 countries.’
the publicity reaped by participating designers
on Oscar night is invaluable. But more than that,
outfitting a star is an honour, prompting fashion
professionals to test the limits of their creativity.
so it is for the team at swarovski. this year’s
82nd Academy Awards marked not only a decade
of the company’s presence at the world-famous
ceremony, but also saw it become the only luxury
brand involved in the making of groundbreaking
finery that adorned both the red carpet as well as
the Academy Awards stage itself.
But first the dresses. Swarovski crystal embellished
Carey Mulligan’s avant-garde black strapless Prada
number as well as the geometric bustier enhancing
Amanda seyfried’s soft green Giorgio Armani Privé
couture princess ball gown. Crystals also decorated
the dramatic side train of Jennifer lopez’s icy-pink,
silk organza Giorgio Armani Privé evening dress.
swarovski even designed clutch purses for every
actress nominee, from veteran Meryl streep to
first-timer Gabourey Sidibe and winner of the best
supporting actress award, Mo’nique. More than
merely accessories, each clutch and minaudiere –
part of a capsule collection conceived by nathalie
Colin, an art director at swarovski – served as an
opulent memento of the contender’s spectacular
achievement. embellished with 700 swarovski
elements, inside of each purse’s silk satin lining was
the hand-engraved nominee’s name as well as the
number of the special limited-edition line.
Beyond the red carpet, inside the Kodak theatre
there was even more glitz on show, with the three-
ton stage curtain made from 100,000 translucent
and smouldering topaz crystals. then there was the
troupe of high-kicking, Vegas-style show girls,
shimmering with a grand total of 30,000 swarovski
crystals in an unforgettable opening show that
concluded with the appearance of the ‘crystal
swing’ – a glittering platform that descended from
the theatre’s rafters. this seamlessly delivered
co-hosts Alec Baldwin and steve Martin to the
glossy white stage, with the crystal swing sparkling
above them as undoubtedly the most sophisticated
bauble flashed at the Oscars this year.
Bronwyn Cosgrave writes for Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue
Swarovski’s limited-edition minaudiere (above), clutched by Meryl Streep (far left). Anna Kendrik (middle) and Carey Mulligan (left) both wore exquisite gowns encrusted with Swarovski crystal
REd CaRpET glamoUR Ten years at
the Oscars is celebrated with a capsule collection
and lots of shine WORDS Bronwyn Cosgrave PHOTOGRAPHY Beate Sonnenberg
Preferred Supplier of
The 2010 European RYDER CUP Team
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Tale of Two sisTers California girls Laura and Kate Mulleavy
named their fashion label Rodarte after their
mother’s maiden name, and the rest is history WORDS Ruth Griffin
laura and kate mulleavy, the siblings behind
fashion label rodarte, were brought up by artistic
parents in Pasadena, california, thousands of miles
from america’s fashion capital. the landscape of
their youth greatly impacted their creative
development. laura recalls the power of their
childhood: ‘we grew up by the beach and were
fascinated with tide pools, redwood forests,
mustard fields, California poppies and apple
orchards. we were completely surrounded by
Steinbeck and kerouac in terms of mythology
and the entire landscape had a sort of hazy Beach
Boys atmosphere… all of these memories shaped
the way we think creatively.’
art school would have seemed the most natural and
likely choice for the two girls but both went on to
study at the university of california, Berkeley. laura
studied english literature and kate art history. it
wasn’t until they graduated in the early 2000s and
returned to Pasadena that their minds began to turn
towards fashion.
cut to 2005 and their story becomes as fairytale-like
as their creations. the girls arrive in new york with
a suitcase of rodarte (a name conceived from their
mother’s pretty maiden name), and within a week
the pair had managed to show their collection to
almost every major fashion editor and luxury retail
buyer in new york city.
By 2006 they had landed the cover of Women’s
Wear Daily, had orders from hot new york boutique
kirna Zabête and gained the respect of uS Vogue
editor anna wintour. Fast forward again to 2010 and
the girls have the prestigious cFda Swarovski
emerging womenswear designer award in 2008
and the 2009 cFda womenswear designer of the
year award under their belts.
So what is it about rodarte’s extraordinary style that
stops the fashion world in their tracks every season?
is it their uniquely romantic take on the world, or their
meticulous couture-like craftsmanship? or is it their
alternative GlaM Opposite rodarte on the S/S10 catwalk. this page Kate and laura Mulleavy (left) used Swarovski crystal on one-off pieces (bottom) designed for a special charity event
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39
story, their very untypical yet fascinating life, living
thousands of miles away from new york city that
makes them so appealing? whatever it may be, their
breathtakingly beautiful fashion has elicited gushing
responses from the fashion press right through the
seasons. wintour called their collection ‘very
personal’ and advised them to keep it that way.
Fashion features editor at British Vogue harriet
Quick dubbed their style ‘a powerful viewpoint’ and
an ‘alternative type of glamour’. others who have
fallen for their fantasy describe it as ‘otherworldly’,
‘couture-like’, and ‘like no other’.
while the fashion world has fallen at the mulleavys’
feet, the girls themselves have stayed steadfast to
their vision. their work – characterised by spider-
web knits, avant-garde patchworks and twisted
dresses – is a skilful manipulation of fabric that has
become their signature.
when talking about their design process kate says
that, ‘we design each collection in terms of the
inspiration we are feeling at that moment. in many
ways, the notion of ruin or decay is a central theme
in our approach to design.’ this can be seen in the
way they handle fabrics: every piece in their collection
will go through a process of construction and
deconstruction. Be it burning, scorching, staining,
sanding and shredding, no fabric goes untouched.
the process continues with embellishment and
that’s where the magic of Swarovski comes in. ‘each
season we use Swarovski crystal to help tell our
stories and to create a visual palette that unfolds in
a cinematic manner,’ says kate. ‘Swarovski crystal
reflects light and casts shadow helping to create
depth and texture. it is a fundamental element in our
designs. For example, this autumn we explored the
idea of sleepwalking. the idea of a dream state, or
in-between state, guided the development of the
collection. Swarovski pearls are used to help
illuminate the collection by creating dappled
moonlight throughout the show.’
this tale of two sisters is a rare one. when asked
about their career trajectory, the girls answer, ‘in the
beginning, we didn’t quite understand that our path
was different,’ says laura. ‘we can never express
how amazing it is to have people take notice and
appreciate our work. the path we took allowed us
to think differently, and to figure out our own
aesthetic voice.’
Ruth Griffin is online editor for Liberty and regularly writes
for The Irish Times
Within a week of arriving in New York with a suitcase of designs, the pair had shown their collection to almost every major fashion editor and luxury buyer
41
TALKING POINT
The Joy of Sex The girls were back in town.
Viv Groskop asks, why can’t we get enough of Sex and the City? ILLUSTRATION Kareem Illiya
And so the juggernaut that is Sex and the
City rolls on. Since its launch on US
television channel HBO in 1998, SATC has
gone on to surpass all expectations. With
its celebration of real women’s sex talk,
early critics called it vulgar, crude and
over-the-top. But the show soon sold to
over thirty countries and by 2007, Time
magazine listed it as one of the 100 best
TV shows of all time. Not bad for an idea
that started as a fairly obscure single girl
column in the New York Observer, by
novelist Candace Bushnell who adopted
the alter ego of Carrie Bradshaw to protect
her privacy.
The latest film, Sex and the City 2, may
have received some lukewarm reviews but
it took $163 million at the box office
worldwide within a week of its release.
This is more than the first film took in US
box office sales in its total sixteen-week
run in 2008. In the first weeks of release in
the UK, virtually every screening was
completely sold out.
So what’s the secret to this adorably over-
the-top phenomenon? The balance
between kitsch and emotion is key. The
TV series always lurched between
extreme, high-camp bling and real-life
drama. Just as you thought you might
start weeping about Samantha’s cancer-
induced hair loss, up would pop a witty
joke from one of the girls, or a ludicrously
gay friend with a catwalk fundraiser, to
liven things up. In the latest film, real-life
themes continue. Samantha is struggling
with menopause. Miranda wants to quit
her job. Charlotte is hating motherhood
and Carrie is unimpressed with marriage.
But like the television series, which was
never in danger of taking itself too
seriously, the films took the comedic
elements of the show and blew them up
to the power of a million. Sex and the City
has always valued style over substance.
And how. As Entertainment Weekly put it,
‘A toast to the wonderful wardrobe from
Sex and the City, which taught us that no
flower is too big, no skirt too short, and no
shoe too expensive.’ The look of the brand
is what really gives it staying power. As
long as Sex and the City looks the way the
fans want it to – big, sparkly, fantastical –
they are happy to enjoy the spectacle.
Costumes in the second film were more
over-the-top than ever, exemplified by the
gown Sarah Jessica Parker wears in the
promotional poster: a billowing silk Pucci
kaftan encrusted with thousands of
Swarovski crystals (even the wedding
cake is covered in them). Crucially, the
look of the SATC brand has always been
consistent, thanks to eccentric costume
designer Patricia Field, who has always
made sure SATC looks like SATC and
nothing else.
There’s no reason to think this cultural
phenomenon is near the end of its shelf
life. When I met Kim Cattrall, who plays
Samantha, earlier this year, she said she
didn’t rule out a third film. And John
Corbett, the actor who plays Aidan,
recently let slip that Sex and the City 3 and
4 are in the works. (‘We don’t make it for
the critics. We make it for the fans.’). There
are rumours the next movie will be a
prequel focusing on Carrie’s life before
she moved to New York, with Miley Cyrus
taking over the role of a teenage Carrie.
Meanwhile, original author Candace
Bushnell is publishing more of Bradshaw’s
teenage diaries. What next? Sex and the
City: Retirement Home? When asked
recently what Carrie might be like as an
old lady, Bushnell replied, ‘Aw, heck. Ask
me in 20 years.’ We can’t wait to find out.
Swarovski has been a long-term partner of the Sex
and the City TV series and both feature films
Viv Groskop writes for the Guardian, the Mail on
Sunday and the New Statesman
‘A toast to the wonderful wardrobe from Sex and the
City, which taught us that no flower is too big, no skirt
too short, and no shoe too expensive’
TALKING POINT
42
When the Facebook page of Swarovski posted a
link to its ‘Chic Multi Blue Ring’ that promised to
make its wearer feel like one of the leading ladies in
Sex and the City 2, over one thousand fans clicked
‘like’ with another hundred posting comments.
Once upon a time, in a pre-Facebook, pre-Tweet
era, reaching audiences had to rely on advertising
splashes and face-to-face sales. Today, however,
the internet enables brands to converse directly with
their fans via the mere click of a button.
The combined powers of Twitter, Facebook and
blogging have created a new and open dialogue
between brands and consumers. The fashion world
was – true to form – fashionably late to the Web 2.0
revolution that has come to the fore over the past
three years. More at home with broadcasting their
trends to the wider world than discussing them in
open forums, only now have brands come to
appreciate the potential of social media.
Part of this change stems from the recession and how to engage
customers without spending millions of pounds on advertising. Youth-led
brands like Topshop and American Apparel were quick to spot this cost-
effective approach, and their contemporaries soon followed suit. Word of
mouth has also driven the online revolution, and if there’s one thing people
like talking about, it’s fashion.
For premium brands, social media offers even greater reward. Couture
labels like Louis Vuitton and Burberry once had only limited means of
sharing their brand heritage with the public, through traditional channels
like exhibitions and print and TV ads. Thanks to online media however,
live catwalk shows can now be streamed simultaneously across the globe
and store openings, collection launches and upcoming sales can be
immediately broadcast.
Swarovski is a perfect example of a brand that has seized the virtual bull
by the horns. An online pioneer, having streamed shows since 2006, its
dedicated multimedia portal, swarovski.tv, supplements a Facebook and
Twitter presence, broadcasting behind-the-scenes videos of its campaign
shoots and also its various design collaboration initiatives. For autumn/
winter 2010 Fashion Week, Swarovski created a unique, branded Flash
player. The player streamed pre-Fashion Week videotorials that profiled
Swarovski-supported designers, narrated by The Sunday Times Style
editor Tiffanie Darke. Semi-live catwalk coverage and exclusive front row
and backstage interviews were also streamed. In addition, Swarovski
has set up a dedicated YouTube portal to promote the CFDA Fashion
Awards on swarovski.tv/cfda.
Social internet platforms have also changed the style by which fashion is
reported. Fashion blogging has become an accepted profession in an
inordinately short space of time, with bloggers like Scott Schuman (‘The
Sartorialist’) and illustrator-turned-style-savant Garance Doré the new
names in style journalism. These web-based commentators appeal to
fashion fans because of their ability to report what they see, as they see it.
Also viewed as having no hidden agenda, their opinions are all the more
valuable to consumers and fashion houses alike.
Then there’s the power of user-generated content. Sites like fashism.com
actively encourage people to share their personal styles and then provide
feedback on them. Burberry’s online portal artofthetrench.com invites its
web-based community to post photos of themselves wearing its iconic
trench coats, and then rate each other’s submissions in a tailor-made
online gallery. As a result, couture labels are devising ever more creative
ways of maintaining their loyal customer bases, while luring new followers
to join. Gucci’s free iPhone app – a three-hour music channel curated by
music producer Mark Ronson and Gucci’s creative director Frida Giannini
– is a recent example.
All of this underpins the fact that the public is more empowered than ever
in the 21st century fashion world. And the industry itself is now able to
utilise consumer opinion like never before to improve how it reaches out to
customers. And that can surely only be a good thing.
Henry Farrar-Hockley is associate editor of Esquire magazine
Net-A-Power Fashion brands are fully taking on social media,
says Henry Farrar-Hockley, reaching fans in ever more creative ways ILLUSTRATION James Joyce
facebook.com/swarovski
twitter.com/swarovski
KILLER COUTURE
MINICLUTCH TREASURE TRASH
www.blessedandcursed.de
Access All
AreAsThis season Swarovski has collaborated with some of the world’s greatest designers. Salt goes behind
the scenes in three fashion capitals to bring you an intimate portrait of the A/W10 collections
PHOTOGRAPHY Minh Ngo, Dean Rogers and Thomas Zanon-Larcher
44
MODEL IN WAITINGFor Halston, Marios Schwab used organic shaped Swarovskicrystal in his designs
LADY IN REDFinishing touches at Halston (left), which relaunched in 2008 under designer Marios Schwab
THE FINER DETAILSOpposite, clockwise from top: More final preparations at Halston; and then ready to wear; a Rodarte headpiece; understated shine at Alexander Wang
46
NEW YORK A/W10 PHOTOGRAPHED BY MINH NGO
‘I came to New York because I felt a connection with the
city. It felt the most eclectic and interesting place to me
when I moved from California. It was the city that really
inspired me the most of all the fashion capitals. Anything
and everything goes here – and that’s what I love about it.
I always say that it’s the little details and mishaps in life
that inspire my work. It’s never anything too grandiose or
fantastical, it has to have a point of view but still be
tucked firm on the ground. New York really represents
that, in the sense that anyone can live their dream here
but you feel the sense of reality at the same time.’
DESIGNER ALEXANDER WANG ON NEW YORK
Alexander Wang was one of 12 designers showing at New
York Fashion Week A/W10 who collaborated with
Swarovski. Others included Halston, Rodarte, Peter
Som, Thuy, Altuzarra, Graeme Armour and Ohne Titel.
‘NEW YORK Is sucH A DIvERsE cITY,
AND TRulY AlIvE 24/7. YOu cAN BE
IN THE MIDDlE Of EvERYTHING AND
lIvE lIfE TO THE full, YET sTIll
fIND quIET sPOTs TO KIcK BAcK AND
RElAx. fAsHION WEEK TOOK PlAcE IN
THE MIDDlE Of A sNOWsTORM – THE
TEMPERATuRE WAs A fREEzING -10°c –
BuT THE NEW YORK cROWD WAs sTIll
OuT IN fORcE TO All THE sHOWs. IT
WAs GREAT TO sEE’
PhOtOGRAPhER MINh NGO ON NEW YORK
‘What I love about london Is Its chaos,
and I’m Interested In tryIng to fInd
calm In that chaos. for that reason
london Is contInually InspIrIng,
Whether It be from fIndIng neW areas
I haven’t seen before, Its cultural
dIversIty or even just certaIn
buIldIngs. It keeps you on your toes
as It’s forever changIng, so for me
there Is alWays a desIre to explore’
PhotograPhEr DEaN rogErS oN LoNDoN
london a/W10 photographed by dean rogers
48
‘The great thing about London is the electric atmosphere. I began my career in the city, and London was magnanimous enough to support me then. When I was given the opportunity to show during the 25th anniversary of London Fashion Week, it seemed only right that I repay the favour, which was long overdue. I was very happy to be coming home. For me, London is about tailoring, about experimentation and about the new, the now and the future. Hopefully this is always apparent in my work, as I consider myself British, but with a Sicilian sense of the histrionic and the romantic.’DESIgNEr aNtoNIo BErarDI oN LoNDoN
Antonio Berardi was one of 11 designers showing at London Fashion Week A/W10 who collaborated with Swarovski. Others included Matthew Williamson, Louise Goldin, Mary Katrantzou, Mark Fast, Holly Fulton, Peter Pilotto, Michael van der Ham and Erdem.
DARK SHINEThis page: Louise Goldin used hot fix crystals in various sizes (above); Antonio Berardi’s hypnotic looks (left and top left)
CATCH THE LIGHTOpposite: Mary Katrantzou decorated her prints with crystals (top); the matador inspired Matthew Williamson (below)
50
‘I go to ParIs fIve or sIx tImes a year,
yet I never tIre of It. the hIstorIcal
archItecture Is mesmerIsIng and ProvIdes
sPectacular venues for fashIon shows.
they’re always bIg, well organIsed and
elegant. the cIty’s oPen, vast boulevards
brIng such a wonderful sense of sPace
and the lIght here Is sPectacular,
regardless of the tIme of year’
PhotograPhEr thoMaS Zanon-LarChEr on ParIS
ParIs a/w10 PhotograPhed by thomas Zanon-larcher
READY AND WAITINGThis page A Karl Lagerfeld model rests (top); this dress from the Giles show took 300 hours to make, with 250,000 Swarovski hot-fix crystals (below)
RETRO GLAmOuROpposite: The Sixties-themed collection at Giles was more ‘grown-up’ with a beige and camel palette and the occasional burst of bright colour
52
Girls on showin line at Giles (right); a model wearing jewellery from swarovski’s Atelier collection, designed by Karl lagerfeld (below)
PARIS A/W10
‘Winning the ANDAM award gave me a great opportunity to show in Paris to a broader audience and raise the profile of the company throughout Europe. Paris, with all its shops and galleries, has always been a huge inspiration to me. It is a city of lights, it reminds me of sparkly Swarovski crystal! ’DESIGNER GILES DEACON ON PARIS
Giles Deacon was one of three designers showing at Paris Fashion Week A/W10 who collaborated with Swarovski. The others were Hussein Chalayan and Tim Hamilton along with Karl Lagerfeld, who designed jewellery for Swarovski’s Atelier collection.
GuidinG liGht Above and right hussein Chalayan applied swarovski crystal mesh in the form of a headline print, to emphasize the link between garment and location
GE
TT
Y
In Hollywood’s heyday, iconic costume design helped make the reputations of the likes of Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn. Even in today’s hi-tech films, a costume designer can ensure that a movie is a stunning, sparkling success
Hollywood’s A-list costume designers may not be boldface names – unlike their counterparts working in fashion – but this means the best screen wardrobes are often imbued with a powerful mystique. While its maker never overshadows the actress flaunting it, the work speaks for itself and perhaps that is why film costumes sometimes have the power to endure and remain influential for generations. Recently, for example, a diverse range of fashion heavyweights – from cutting-edge London design talents like Christopher Kane and Erdem to established forces like Carolina Herrera and Michael Kors – have conceived collections which reference the subtle and flirty femininity that MGM costume designer Helen Rose created for Grace Kelly to model in the 1956 romantic comedy High Society. Meanwhile, Oscar-nominated actress Carey Mulligan made the most stylish arrival at the Cannes Film Festival last May, stepping daintily off a yacht in a cotton sundress from the Prada Print Collection. Mulligan’s Fifties style, fit-and-flare frock featured a vintage print sourced from Prada’s archive. But like so many of the dolce vita feminine casuals produced every summer by the best Italian designers, its look recalled the playful spirit of the vacation chic that Edith Head, legendary costume designer at Paramount Pictures, created for Audrey Hepburn in the 1953 classic love story, Roman Holiday.
55
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WORDS Bronwyn Cosgrave
queens of the silver screen
For close to a century, Swarovski’s expertise has helped the artistry of such masterly costume designers to thrive. Back in the Thirties for example, when Hollywood needed an iconic piece of costume, it turned to Swarovski for sparkle – hence Dorothy’s ruby slippers in The Wizard Of Oz. And today, at its airy white Swarovski Communications office in London, New York and Los Angeles, workshops are regularly held to educate costume designers about the countless creative possibilities of working with Swarovski’s myriad array of crystal.
Avatar costume designer Mayes C Rubeo joined a group of designers in London last autumn for a trend and new product presentation at Swarovski. She was impressed by the 31 variations and 22 colours of cut crystal which Colleen Atwood utilised – along with 1,640 feet of crystal mesh – to create 36 sparkling costumes for the Oscar-nominated musical, Nine, directed by Rob Marshall, a film that Women’s Wear Daily described as a ‘glamour lesson’.
Upon departing, Rubeo placed a lengthy order for her next blockbuster project, John Carter of Mars, the hotly anticipated adaptation of a 1912 serialised novel about a Civil War veteran who is transported to Mars, which is due for release in 2012 after decades of development. Flat backs, pendants, crystal pearls, crystal fabric, crystal pearl mesh, beads, sew-on stones and crystal yarn – Rubeo ordered the lot from Swarovski to produce John Carter’s gargantuan wardrobe. ‘I also had to make 1,400 pieces of jewellery and I could not have done it all without Swarovski. Spending just one afternoon at Swarovski opened up a whole new world and gave me ideas on how to make more beautiful costumes. Swarovski just helps designers make better costumes.’
‘Swarovski is one of few companies that support costume designers as artists,’ says Arianne Phillips, who has produced wardrobes for over 20 films. She has received Oscar nominations for the 2005 Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line and Tom Ford’s 2009 directorial debut A Single Man. Phillips is most famous, however, for her work with Madonna. Their professional relationship stretches back 13 years to the performer’s 1998 Ray of Light album. Phillips has devised groundbreaking costumes for Madonna’s daring videos, entertaining concert tours (each one a-glitter with Swarovski), as well as her stage and screen productions. Before prepping the wardrobe for W.E. – the upcoming Madonna-directed romantic comedy based on Wallis Simpson’s relationship with Edward VIII – Phillips chaired a panel of leading costume designers at the sixth annual workshop hosted by Swarovski in Los Angeles.
After this duty concluded, she got busy at the workshop, researching the reproductions she will be making of Wallis Simpson’s opulent jewels and visiting four workstations that demonstrated Swarovski’s technologically advanced application methods, from gluing to hot-f ixing and crystallising. ‘The applications are amazing,’ recalls Phillips. ‘Swarovski is such a forward-moving company. The brand has been propelled to the 21st century by technology. For me it is the perfect brand to work with. Swarovski is involved in fashion, music, art and film – like me. What could be more appropriate? ’
For six years, Swarovski has also sponsored the Costume Designers Guild Awards. Founded in 1999, the CDG Awards annually honours costume designers working in f ilm, television and commercial advertising. The guild was founded in 1953 to elevate
the artistry, technical wizardry and creative foresight involved in the specialised craft of costume design. For its inaugural 1999 awards ceremony, the host and actress Anjelica Huston playfully christened its trophy as a ‘date for Oscar’. Meanwhile, its consistent turnout of Hollywood acting legends and great directors demonstrates their esteem for their sartorial collaborators and also the fact that, without the right costume, they simply can’t do their job. ‘I never really know my character until I walk in her clothes,’ Debra Messing said at the 2009 CDG Awards.
When in 2006 Colleen Atwood received the CDG Career Achievement Award, director Tim Burton described his long-time costume designer – who has produced the wardrobe for eight of his films, from 1990’s Edward Scissorhands to this year’s Alice In Wonderland – as an ‘artist ’, he added: ‘I can have an idea about something... but especially with more extreme characters, it does take (the costume) to fully get the feeling of it.’
This phi losophy or ig inated in Old Hollywood, where legendary costume designers stopped at nothing to source the f inest sa r tor ia l e lements so thei r accompanying actors could perfect their performances. Textiles, embellishments and accessories were sourced from the f inest European producers, including Swarovski. Take, for example, the original 1938 MGM production of Marie Antoinette. Its costume designer Gilbert Adrian spent three years researching the opulent wardrobe for the biopic of Louis XVI’s doomed wife which starred Norma Shearer, then known as the ‘Queen of Hollywood’.
Acquiring sumptuous fabric for Shearer’s lavish court gowns, Adrian consulted Vienna’s Royal Archives to ensure their authenticity and, while he was in Austria, procured Swarovski crystal to produce her opulent jewels. While MGM permitted Adrian to employ a milliner who had worked for the Russian Imperial Opera to produce plumed hats and towering headdresses for Shearer (one that even featured a gilt-caged mechanical canary), the studio initially considered excessive the request of hairstylist Sydney Guilaroff, who demanded a double strand of rare black pearls from Van Cleef & Arpels to adorn one of the 18 towering powdered wigs he coiffed. Eventually, Guilaroff got the pearls and it paid off. Marie Antoinette was a box office hit and Diana Vreeland, the legendary Vogue editor, described its look as ‘second to none.’
Travis Banton, Gilbert Adrian’s counterpart at Paramount Studios in the Thirties, cut costumes from couture quality fabric including silks by Bianchini Férrier, the Lyon mill employing Fauvist painter Raoul Dufy as artistic director. And when Marlene Dietrich required packing cases as props for the 1932 railroad caper Shanghai Express, Baton acquired these from Hermès.
FIT FOR A QUEEN Previous page Swarovski crystal sparkles in 2007’s Elizabeth: The Golden Age
NAME IN LIGHTS This page, clockwise from top Swarovski crystal features in iconic film moments, both classic and modern: I’m No Angel (1933); Nine (2009); The Young Victoria (2009); Gentleman Prefer Blondes (1953)
At the 200 costume designers
guild AwArds, Actress debrA
messing sAid, ‘i never reAlly
know my chArActer until i wAlk
in her clothes’
57
The bugle beads and sequins were sourced by the same Parisian supplier that Elsa Schiaparelli used for such films as Moulin Rouge. But when it came to preparing the lavish wardrobe for Mae West’s 1933 comedy I’m No Angel, Banton allegedly bellowed a demand for ‘diamonds – lots of them!’ His assistants turned to Swarovski crystals to enhance West’s natural assets.
Edith Head, Banton’s former assistant, rose through the ranks and controlled Paramount’s wardrobe department, occupying her super-elegant office. A shelf behind Head’s antique desk displayed confirmation of her expertise – four gleaming Oscars for best costume design. ‘Paradise on earth – not unlike legendary ateliers in Paris,’ the costume designer Donfeld described the expansive workrooms where Head created Audrey Hepburn’s casual duds for Roman Holiday, as well as her majestic imperial-court gown with a Swarovski crystal-laden parure. Head also supervised the production of jewels made with Swarovski crystal that beautiful Hepburn flaunted as the title character in 1954’s Sabrina, as well as the tiara she flashed in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Head’s modern-day equivalent is Sandy Powell. The Briton is equally adept at producing cutting-edge looks and breathtaking period finery, and has earned three costume design Academy Awards including one, this year, for The Young Victoria. The 2009 production captured the early reign of Queen Victoria, who ruled for 63 years and seven months, longer than any other. ‘The costumes in the film by Sandy Powell are superb,’ says fashion historian Judith Watt, who researched the production’s costume-making process. ‘They are at once authentic in their accuracy [and] their success in communicating the character of each player [which is] a daunting task because this period is so transitional – situated between the romanticism of the 1830s, and the arrival of fashion’s first dictator, couturier Charles Frederick Worth.’ Powell further explains: ‘In the 1820s, when Victoria was young, clothing was highly decorated and over-the-top. But, at the time she became queen, lines had become simpler, skirts less full. It all became more austere.’
The Young Victoria was the first film set in the 19th century upon which Powell had ever worked. She meticulously researched the mode of regal dress at Kensington Palace, examining Queen Victoria’s actual clothes while accessing Swarovski’s Marangoni Achive in Milan, which holds 14,000 pieces of antique and costume jewellery. These provided authentic inspiration for Victoria’s ‘diamonds and pearls’ says Judith Watt.
So the gems adorning actress Emily Blunt are copies, made by a jeweller in crystal, of Victoria’s actual pieces – including the spectacular sceptre and orb held by the Regent at her coronation in 1838. Recalling its legendary pomp and ceremony, Watt adds that Victoria proudly wrote that she ‘took the Orb in [her] left hand and the Sceptre in [her] right and thus loaded, proceeded through the Abbey – which resounded with cheers. I shall ever remember this day as the proudest in my life! ’ the young queen noted.
And thanks to Swarovski this historic moment and so many others have become artfully and authentically preserved on film.swarovski.tv
Bronwyn Cosgrave writes about film and design for Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, the Financial Times and The Guardian
Atelier SwArovSki
Ellipse Bangle, Atelier Swarovski by Kirt Holmes
‘The starting point when working with any Swarovski product is the crystal itself, it’s a joy to work with, it’s the kind of product that reminds me why I am a jewellery designer.’ Kirt Holmes
For the autumn/winter 2010 collection, Atelier Swarovski’s guest designers – Karl Lagerfeld
Kirt Holmes, Marios Schwab, Hariri & Hariri, Holly Fulton and Stephen Webster –
have brought six different, bold approaches to crystal jewellery
PHOTOGRAPHY Alain Costa
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Link Necklace, Atelier Swarovski by Holly Fulton
‘I feel the simplicity of the design allows the materials to speak for themselves whilst still creating a strong, simple aesthetic in keeping with my love of Art Deco. The crystal is a perfect contrast to the effect of “hardware” and adds an element of luxe refinement, and echoes my desire to create luxurious pieces that can be worn effortlessly.’ Holly Fulton
Pearl Necklace, Atelier Swarovski by Marios Schwab
‘The settings of these pieces take
classic pearl jewellery out of
its original context, and create
sinuous lines which follow
the contours of a woman’s face.
I liked the idea of taking
something so quintessentially
staid and preppy and giving it
a modern, arresting twist.’ Marios schwab
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Kryptonite Cuff, Atelier Swarovski by Hariri & Hariri
‘The collection is named
Kryptonite, a fictional element
from superhuman mythology,
because it gives one superpower
from its sheer size and design.
It is almost supernatural! Like
all of our work, this collection
cannot be defined as one thing;
it is the amalgamation of many
things, where beauty, sensuality,
functionality, technology and
philosophy connect the body
and mind.’
hariri & hariri
Bat Ring, Atelier Swarovski by Stephen Webster
‘“Once Bitten” is an example of
how men’s jewellery has evolved
from the basic and obvious
themes considered acceptable
in order to appeal to men’s taste.
Provocative and challenging,
these are accessories to be noticed
and commented on. It’s no longer
just about the watch for men.’ Stephen WebSter
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Circular Cuff, Atelier Swarovski by Karl Lagerfeld
Designer, photographer,
publisher and multi-faceted
artist Karl Lagerfeld has built
a world where every line is
controlled and every detail
has meaning. For A/W10,
Lagerfeld creates an Atelier
Swarovski couture collection
of Inca-inspired pieces, with
glittering crystal serpents and
sacred circles.
WORDS Amy Raphael PhOtOgRaPhy Josh Olins
GOINGGAGA
Seductive lyrics and electro-soul tunes have made her songs a hit, but it’s Lady Gaga’s one-of-a-kind outfits that have made her a star
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When Time magazine announced its annual poll of the 100
most influential people in the world, Lady Gaga took fifth place.
Billed as ‘musician, diva’, the newcomer to the list towered
above Robert Pattinson, Oprah Winfrey (who has appeared in
every Time 100 since its inception in 2004) and even Barack
Obama. Apparently arriving from nowhere as a fully-formed
performance artist who ‘wants to be the next 25 years of pop
music’, Lady Gaga has already sold 15 million albums and 40
million singles. And she’s not even 25 years old.
Gaga is the perfect 21st-century star. She is a Tim Burton
movie come to life, an Andy Warhol project, Madonna in her
Truth or Dare period, Grace Jones the first time around. The
electro-soul hits ‘Just Dance’, ‘Poker Face’ and ‘Paparazzi’ are
powerfully seductive, but Lady Gaga expresses herself as
much through fashion as through music. At Glastonbury last
year, she appeared on stage in a dress made of transparent
plastic bubbles and played a matching piano. Fireworks shot
from the nipples of her crystal-encrusted pointed bra. Another
time, the singer turned up for a magazine shoot naked except
for a white rubber raincoat and outrageously high heels.
Nothing, it seems, is out of bounds for Gaga’s costumes. She
has exhibited a Philip Treacy silver lobster on her face. She has
strutted around in a tunic made of Kermit heads. When she
wanted to appear in a wheelchair, her stylist B Akerlund
ordered Gucci fabric and gave it the signature Gaga sparkle
with Swarovski crystals. When she appeared on American Idol,
Gaga was dressed by Benjamin Cho, her outfit embellished by
thousands of Swarovski Elements.
Matthew Williams, Gaga’s creative director and one of her
closest friends, says that neither he nor Gaga aims to shock
with her outfits. ‘We don’t take that into consideration at all.
It’s just me and Gaga doing things we like that don’t already
exist. We always want to do something new, something that’s
never been done before. Gaga likes to push boundaries, to
take things to a different place. Some of the outfits are crazy,
but we also create really simple, classic outfits – people tend
to forget the beautiful, elegant gowns.’
Williams, a fashion designer, met Gaga in a sushi restaurant in
Los Angeles three years ago. ‘It was her first week in LA and I’d
moved back from New York a month earlier. We were both with
friends, we shared a table and got talking. I offered to take her out
to a bunch of clubs while she was recording her first album, The
Fame.’ He made Gaga a catsuit and a disco stick for her record
label showcase (the stick is still very much in use) and understands
her creative visions. ‘She may say: “I’m seeing lavender.” Which
is how the lavender jacket came about. The triangular outfit made
with Swarovski Elements is inspired by Klaus Nomi, the late
performance artist from New York. The media might think all
these outfits are attention-seeking, but it’s just art.’
Gaga herself is a work of art. She has surrounded herself with
an extensive creative team known as ‘Haus of Gaga’. When
planning her Monster Ball world tour – which she calls ‘the
first-ever “pop electro opera”’ – her creative entourage baffled
even Zaldy, the costume designer who has worked with
Michael Jackson and Gwen Stefani. ‘I couldn’t help but wonder
how it was going to be to work together. I had never really
worked with anyone who had so many advisers. But, the best
thing about working with Gaga was finding out how genuine
those ideas were to her, whether or not they came from
meetings with the Haus of Gaga. Her instincts were always
right on target.’ Zaldy goes on to say that she is a ‘capable,
multi-talented overachiever with a lot to give’. It’s precisely this
‘GaGa likes to
push boundaries,
to take thinGs
to a different
place… the media
miGht think all
these outfits are
attention-seekinG,
but it’s just art’
combination of work ethic and originality
that has helped propel Gaga into the
stratosphere – and perhaps why the
singer has been known to say she has
‘always been Gaga’.
Lady Gaga was born Stefani Joanne
Angelina Germanotta, the daughter of an
Italian-American internet entrepreneur.
She attended the same upscale school
in Manhattan as the Hilton sisters (they
weren’t friends), trained with Christina
Aguilera’s voice coach, learned classical
piano and nurtured a passion for Queen
and Elton John. At 14 she was singing
at open-mic nights, chaperoned by her
mother; she later dropped out of art
college and worked in New York’s
cabaret clubs as a singer-pianist.
She was never destined to be a club
singer however; she wanted to be a star
(hence the first two album titles: The Fame
and The Fame Monster). Like Madonna
the big draw(Above) Costume designer Zaldy’s high-impact concepts for Lady gaga
trUe PerFOrMer (Opposite and top right)
Lady gaga’s unforgettable costumes from her Monster
Ball tour, at the O2 arena, in december 2009
before her, Gaga broke out of the underground gay clubs and became, with alarming
speed, a living legend. She is mysterious and tortured. To prove it she has a quote from
poet Rainer Maria Rilke tattooed on her arm: ‘In the deepest hour of the night, confess
to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write. And look deep into your
heart where it spreads its roots, the answer, and ask yourself: “Must I write?”’
Gaga might adjust the quote to read: ‘Must I perform?’ For, although she says that it is her
‘destiny to be a storyteller’ she does this with costume as much as with lyrics. With her
geometric blond wigs and Swarovski crystal-encrusted outfits, Lady Gaga is unique. And
what about Gaga off-duty? Williams says his friend is not the type to go out in trackpants
and trainers. ‘Her mum taught her never to leave the house without looking nice. And Gaga
says she owes it to her fans to always dress up. It’s about… magic. Michael Jackson had
magic in his clothing, his performance; that art is lost these days.’ he says.
Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga – the prince and princess of pop – share more than
magic. Gaga, like Jackson before her, is about the show. And to prove her unassailable
position at the top of the pop tree, just ask yourself this: is there a performer today who
wouldn’t benefit from a professional association with Gaga? Arguably one of the most
famous women in the world right now, she is capable of making anyone – Madonna,
Bono, Kanye West, even perhaps President Obama – look more relevant, interesting,
significant and just, well, cool. Or, as Williams concludes: ‘Everyone loves Gaga.’
Amy Raphael writes about music for the Observer, the Telegraph, Elle and Esquire.
Swarovski has collaborated with Lady Gaga since early 2009
Light of the worLd
Words Chris Sanderson PHoToGrAPHY Henry Bourne
Experimentation and creative expressionshine bright in the Swarovski Crystal Palace exhibition at Salone del Mobile in Milan
HIGH BEAM This page Yves Béhar’s ‘Amplify’. Opposite: Detail of the recyclable paper lanterns in Béhar’s piece
« Yves BÉHAr
For Swarovski Crystal Palace, Béhar
created ‘Amplify’, using his sustainable
ethos to design a lighting arrangement
built by combining recycled materials
and a low-energy LED light with a
single crystal. The result was a series
of simple lanterns made of recyclable
paper, within which light is refracted
from a crystal, casting its patterns on
the surface of the paper.
Yves Béhar has established himself
as one of the most forward-thinking
designers of recent times, thanks to his
work focusing on designing products
that promote a sustainable future, such
as the XO laptop. Costing $100, it was
aimed at bringing education to the
children of developing nations. Béhar’s
work has been exhibited in museums
such as New York’s MOMA and he
holds numerous awards such as the
National Design Award from Cooper-
Hewitt, National Design Museum.
70
Swarovski Crystal Palace, the incubator of cutting edge design, has been referred to as the Swarovski think tank. This year, five designers were commissioned and have once more demonstrated the creative potential of Swarovski crystal, merging the disciplines of art, design, science and technology to create a collection of structural pieces that had a decidedly architectural quality. Unveiled at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, each designer’s installation was shown in its own separate room, capturing the guiding theme of inspirational palaces
« Tokujin Yoshioka
Yoshioka’s bright, white design, ëStellar’
was a suspended globe, one metre
in diameter, encrusted with 11,000
Swarovski crystals and lit from within
by LED lights. The smoke-filled space
around it gave it a powerful
luminescence. Yoshioka also created a
second piece, updated from his 2008
work, ‘Venus – Natural Crystal Chair’.
The installation consisted of a tank of
natural crystals growing around a globe.
It was technically challenging,’ he said,
‘because the unpredictable element
found in nature had to be accurately
expressed by human design.’
After founding his own studio a decade
ago, Tokujin Yoshioka shot to design
fame following the success of his
Honey-Pop paper chair in 2001. He has
since worked with clients such as
Hermès, BMW and Toyota, and former
employer Issey Miyake. Yoshioka holds
several awards including Designer of
the Year at Design Miami in 2007.
BRIGHT IDEAS Opposite page Tokujin Yoshioka’s ‘Stellar’ (top) and the twinned globe of growing crystals (bottom). This page Gwenaël Nicolas’ ‘Sparks’ – a glimmering crystal rope (top left and bottom); and helium balloons (top right)
» GwenaËl nicolas
For Swarovski Crystal Palace, French
designer Gwenaël Nicolas created two
rooms called ëSparks’. In one piece he
threaded together a series of crystals
and LED lights to create a glimmering
12-metre rope, along which light
skipped and danced. In the other room
were large, free-floating, helium-filled
balloons that used NASA technology for
their incredibly thin and transparent
surfaces. Each balloon contained a small
floating crystal sculpture lit by an LED
light, which sparked into life and also
served as a propulsion device to gently
float the balloon across the room.
French designer Nicolas moved to Japan
and founded his company Curiosity in
1998. He has since embarked on a wide
range of projects, from store interiors for
Uniqlo to perfume bottle designs for
Issey Miyake and Van Cleef & Arpels.
73
« Vincent Van Duysen
‘Frost’ was a versatile artwork
comprising vertical crystal-encrusted
beams. The design could either be
displayed on its own or joined with
other beams to create new modular
structures. Each beam featured a
random assortment of crystals set
into place using resin.
Architect Vincent van Duysen has
designed commercial, residential and
office spaces for over two decades.
The Belgian architect has also
designed furniture and decorative
objects for brands such as B&B Italia,
Poliform and When Objects Work.
» RogieR Van DeR HeiDe
For his Swarovski Crystal Palace
installation, Rogier van der Heide
focused on the natural beauty of
crystals with a three-dimensional
‘Dream Cloud’ sculpture. The piece
comprised thousands of crystals to
form a giant floating cloud. ‘On the floor
below,’ said van der Heide, ‘the light
from the cloud touches a surreal carpet
of black tulips.’
No stranger to light, van der Heide
originally honed his craft designing
theatre lighting. Since then he has
worked at global design firm Arup,
where Metropolis magazine heralded
him ‘Arup’s brilliant master of light’. He
has subsequently become the Vice
President of Philips Design and Chief
Design Officer for Lighting.
swarovskicrystalpalace.com
Chris Sanderson is strategy and insight director
of The Future Laboratory, London
NATURAL LIGHT Opposite page The beams in Vincent van Duysen’s ‘Frost’ allowed for multi- functional design
SWEET DREAMSThis page ‘Dream Cloud’ by Rogier van der Heide had a carpet of black tulips on the floor for a dramatic contrast with the crystal
74
WORDS Joanne Glasbey
A GUY WHO
STOOD OUT IN
THE CROWD
Under the control of the Weinsteins and with Marios Schwab designing, Halston
has made a remarkable comeback. Which would
please the house’s founder, a superstar immortalised
in a disco anthem
one niGht in a disco halston, left,
at studio 54 on new Year’s eve 1978 with Paloma
Picasso, andy Warhol and (behind) Liza Minelli
Robin PlatzeR/twin images/time life PictuRes/getty images; Robin PlatzeR/twin images & online usa/getty
images; Ron galella/wiReimage; ©the andy waRhol foundation foR the Visual aRts/coRbis; ©condé nast
aRchiVe/coRbis; ann cliffoRd/dmi/time life PictuRes/getty images; © bettmann/coRbis; anthea simms
76
Nadja Swarovski’s unerring eye for talent. Invited to Swarovski’s Showrooms in London, he presented his original and innovative ideas for crystal integration in his collection, and the relationship blossomed. Showcasing the versatility of crystal has been an important element in Schwab’s creative vision. And it’s a vision he shares with Halston: ‘Women want to be individual and innovative, to have an emotional attachment to what they buy, and Halston was very much like that. He designed for strong personalities. So do I.’
Halston was a man far ahead of his time. He had a glamorous rise; his demise played out like scenes from Wall Street. As Harvey Weinstein has noted, ‘His is an interesting story – but also a remarkable lesson, about how one may lose everything.’
The fashion house which became the symbol of American glamour in the Seventies, was created by an accountant’s son from Des Moines. Prescient and savvy, invariably dressed in his black cashmere turtleneck, Halston was a groundbreaking figure in fashion history but had no formal training. He was the modernist who favoured the minimalist aesthetic: above all, eschewing the trends of the over-accessorised Sixties by combining simple, pared-down silhouettes with luxurious fabrics, creating clothes with few trimmings and closures that were easy to wear, but looked the height of chic. No wonder women loved him.
However, despite having built up his business through talent and undeniable charisma, an unfailing eye and sheer hard graft, he ended his days having given away his name, turned into a brand for which he was a mere employee. Believing that ‘fashion is not made by designers, it is made by fashionable people’, Halston failed to grasp that eventually fashion would be owned by business people and that would be his undoing.
Born in 1932 into a modest, middle-class, Iowa family, Roy Halston Frowick was a handsome, precocious talent, who inherited his interest in sewing from his mother. Dashing and popular at school, ‘Fro’ headed for Chicago in his late teens, where he became a window dresser. Soon, under the guidance of celebrity hair stylist André Basil, Fro started creating hats, simultaneously learning the art and importance of client relations.
A quick learner, Fro’s headwear and charms attracted prominent clients. Changing his name to just Halston, he arrived in New York and by 1959 he was head milliner for Bergdorf Goodman, famed for its in-house custom design salon. Here he got his first taste of the fame to come: he designed the pillbox hat Jacqueline Kennedy wore to her husband’s presidential inauguration. He was the only person in the store Greta Garbo would talk to; he designed for Rita Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich and a slew of eminent society ladies. They admired his creativity, but they adored his mischief. He once remarked, ‘You’re only as good as the people you dress.’ Which made him pretty good indeed.
However, Halston wanted to design women’s wear. When reminded he was only a hatmaker, he retorted: ‘So was Chanel’. Reluctantly Bergdorf ’s conceded and his first collection was shown in 1966 to much excitement. At that time, fashion shows were stiff affairs, but Halston’s models swung down the catwalk as if they were having fun. The next day, the influential trade paper Women’s Wear Daily raved about the show. Opening his own boutique in 1968, he created clothes that avoided youthful trendiness, referencing eras like the Thirties, evoking slim silhouettes, then adding some Hollywood glamour.
While his fashions were understated, he created an unconventional atelier: an exotic mix of patterns, lush plants, comfortable furniture, understanding that fashion and environment go hand-in-hand. Women used it to socialise, lounging over coffee. The boutique became an after-hours salon and a venue for art exhibitions and parties.
By 1972, Halston had opened boutiques in major department stores around the US, and had three levels of his own clothing under one roof, including his made-to-order salon, selling dresses for $10,000. His influence was penetrating wider areas of culture: that year, Halston made the cover of Newsweek. He was the golden boy; his companies grossed almost $30 million. Offers to design flooded in from all over the world.
Socialites, the jet-set and a growing cadre of Hollywood stars embraced his jersey garments, shirtwaist dresses, cashmere sweater sets, pyjamas, kaftans and jumpsuits. He capitalised on the growing cult of celebrity and the breakdown of class barriers.
Halston was fashion’s first superstar; he changed the way the world dressed. His influence on fashion travelled well beyond his designs, capturing the zeitgeist of the Seventies. With a clientele and friends from the elite of showbusiness and society, he became powerful and influential. In a twist to the Halston story, the label was bought by a group of investors led by Hilco Consumer Capital and supported by Harvey Weinstein of the Weinstein Company along with Halston CEO Bonnie Takhar. Harvey Weinstein declared he wanted to grow the fashion business into ‘the f irst American global luxury goods brand’ – even if it were to take 30 years. ‘We believe,’ Weinstein continued, ‘that this innovative partnership furthers the natural connection between the adjacent worlds of entertainment and fashion.’
Last year’s appointment of Marios Schwab as Halston’s design director was a coup. Schwab’s considered approach will drive the house forward. ‘I like something that runs through time in a certain way that becomes timeless,’ he said. ‘Halston is so different, but we share one very important fact. We want to create enduring fashion, something women wear for years.’
With the recent launch of brand’s diffusion line, Halston Heritage, presenting reinvented signature pieces, Marios Schwab is free to create the more forward-thinking designs. With no more than a nod to the house’s roots, Schwab presented a powerful and confident autumn/winter 2010 collection, his first as design director, which invoked the house’s history without being too literal.
Finding inspiration in the 1978 film The
Eyes of Laura Mars, Schwab def ines the contemporary Halston woman as alluring and unconventional. Exuding luxury and confidence, dresses often shone with subtly placed Swarovski crystals. Schwab used classic draping techniques to create a modern linear silhouette.
It’s certainly not the f irst time Marios Schwab has used Swarovski crystals to embellish his designs. When he was a mere ‘babe in the woods’, he was spotted by
Clients included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Princess Grace of Monaco, Cher and Diana Ross. He relied on a team of models to promote his fame. The fashion editor André Leon Talley coined the name Halstonettes for the beautiful, glamorous women. Later Halston aficionados included Liza Minnelli, with whom he had a special friendship, and Bianca Jagger.
This was new: never before had a specialist, no matter how talented, been allowed to mix so intimately with the social elite. The designer became the leading man, as famous and socially visible as the people he dressed. He was everybody’s best friend, including Andy Warhol, his perfect art world counterpart. Warhol and his camera were regulars backstage at shows.
Halston’s demi-monde was dubbed the Cat Pack by the New York press, their activities eagerly reported. Hard-working Halston had always been diligent and focused, by nature a homebody. This changed during 1977, after being introduced to the extremes of the notorious Studio 54. The disco was packed each night with the rich and famous, the unknown and interesting. It embodied the decadence of the time: drugs and sex, in limitless quantities and combinations, were on tap. Halston did not hold back.
By the Eighties, his partying was taking its toll and his success faltered as younger women were patronising new designers such as Calvin Klein and Armani. At corporate HQ , the suits became restless and insisted he go mass market. Eventually, Halston was thrown out and, legally could no longer create clothes under his own name.
The following years were spent with friends, travelling, and f ighting to buy back his name. Halston died in March 1990 of an AIDS-related illness. Immortalised in Sister Sledge’s disco favourite, ‘He’s the Greatest Dancer’ (when the song played over his atelier’s speakers, work halted until the ‘Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci’ line), he left the world a rich and fabulous legacy.
Joanne Glasbey is the executive editor of ST Fashion
for the Sunday Telegraph
in halston,
the designer
became the
leading man,
as famous
and socially
visible as
the people
he dressed
CRèME DE LA CRèME (clockwise from above) Halston with Bianca and Mick Jagger; a Halston gown in Brazil, 1973; the designer with Liz Taylor at Studio 54; with Liza Minelli in 1981; with the club’s owner Steve Rubell and Margaux Hemingway; in his trademark black polo neck; with Paloma Picasso
DRESSED TO KILL (opposite) Pieces from the Halston A/W10 collection, under the creative direction of Marios Schwab
THIS PAGE: Dress, Giorgio Armani Privé embellished with Swarovski Elements (22 Ways to Say Black Collection, page 20)
ARTISTICENDEAVOURS
PHOTOGRAPHY Guy Aroch FASHION Soraya Dayani
Uptown girls head downtown for art’s sake, bringing shimmering glamour to the bohemian galleries and studios
ABOVE: Dress, Marios Schwab. Earrings, David Mandel. RIGHT: Dress, Mary Katrantzou.Necklace, David Mandel
THIS PAGE: Silk shorts and silk shell with Swarovski Elements neo-analog beading, Phillip Lim. Baroque laser-cut asymmetric tank dress, Phillip Lim. Mask, Kiki de Montarnasse
ABOVE: Cream dress, tights and shoes, Rodarte. Cuff and necklace, David Mandell. Bracelet, Lee Angel. RIGHT: Black dress, Osman
tHis paGe: Leather and silk wrap dress with swarovski elements, ohne titel. tights, ohne titel. earrings, David Mandel
Hair: Dennis Lanni for art Dept Make-Up: alice Lane for Jedroot pHotoGrapHer’s assistants: Chris Clinton, Johnny Buenaventura styList’s assistants: Jessica Firth-Morais, anatolli smith MoDeL: taryn Davidson at next
aBoVe: Black long-sleeved body suit with frill detail, alexandre Herchcovitch. appliqué skirt and silk and sequin jacket, antonio Berardi with swarovski elements. tights, Falke. earrings, David Mandel
88
praise. It was she who introduced her protégé to Swarovski. Then a consultant to the company, Blow was a key collaborator with Nadja Swarovski in imagining how the company’s sparkling products could support emerging talent to gain visibility on the high-fashion runway.
McQueen was a pioneer. With his eye for embellishment, he fused the aesthetics of London underground style with the grandeur of couture. He first worked with crystal mesh in 1999, moving on to employ Swarovski crystal in some of his most mind-bending and unforgettabe shows once he had graduated to Paris. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? cast models and dancers, choreographed by Michael Clark, in crystal-embroidered Thirties evening dresses and showgirl body-suits. Crystal components played a role, too, in the Highland romance of the collection in which Kate Moss materialised as a hologram.
In 1996, this son of a taxi driver was appointed head designer at Givenchy, in charge of creating haute couture (a stint that lasted until 2000, when he joined Gucci Group). By then, he’d already made a lasting impact on the way women dress with his outrageous ‘bumsters’, which have revolutionised the shape of jeans and trousers to this day.
Something that really annoyed McQueen was being accused of misogyny. ‘That got tedious. How could I be a misogynist, growing up with three sisters?’ In fact, McQueen’s inner team were all women: his assistant of 13 years, Sarah Burton, who has now stepped up to the job of creative director; show-producer Sam Gainsbury; stylists Katy England and Camilla Nickerson – and then, of course, there was his crucial friendship with the late Isabella Blow.
One afternoon, I, too, won trust enough to be allowed to watch him – like the student from Westminster did – as he cut. A physical explosion of hand-eye coordination and decisiveness came out of the designer in a fury of concentration and bravura technique. McQueen would prowl around the girl, head down and shoulders hunched, like a boxer eyeing an opponent. Then he went in with his tailor’s shears, snipping in mid-air like Edward Scissorhands, and voilà – dresses appeared. His was an extraordinary talent – technically brilliant, emotionally charged. We will certainly never see its like again.
Sarah Mower writes for Vogue and writes the catwalk reviews for style.com
‘He worked listening to classical music, smoking, and, like a terrier, would bark at anyone who came too close. One afternoon, while photocopying, I was in clear view of him as he draped dresses. In the time it took me to copy 20 pages, he’d draped three that were worthy of a show.’ These are the words of Adam Jamieson, a fashion student at the University of Westminster, whose internship write-up now stands as a rare eyewitness account of Alexander McQueen at work.
McQueen was never keen on extraneous people watching him plunge into fabric with tailor’s shears, then pinning and tucking it on a live model until an exquisite dress appeared. Within days, McQueen would be dead, and Jamieson’s awestruck account is testament to the fact that, in his last days, McQueen had been working, on and off, in spite of the fact that his beloved mother Joyce was dying. And when that final collection – 16 outfits near enough to completion to be finished by his right-hand woman, Sarah Burton – was shown in Paris, it could not have epitomised him more accurately. His emotional state was embodied in imagery taken from Dark Ages Christian art: Hieronymous Bosch’s perverted sinners, and monsters versus archangels, all woven into exquisite jacquards in short, medieval-princeling dresses or long gowns as slender and attenuated as marble knights’ and ladies’ in an English church. That battle between good and evil, hope and despair was even caught in the detail of the headdresses – a flashback to McQueen’s spring 2001 Asylum show, his landmark piece of performance art about madness and vanity.
My computer is full of memories of Alexander McQueen: interviews, impressions and descriptions of the roller-coaster spectacles he dragged us through as an audience. What was unique was the combination of his extraordinary level of skill with the instincts and grand visions of a sensationalist filmmaker or theatre producer – all indivisible from his frequently foul-mouthed East End sense of humour and mischief-making. ‘In the Nineties, fashion didn’t know where to go. Minimalism had taken over – everyone wanted clean living. But it had gone to a pretentious extreme,’ he once told me, with a typical snorting laugh. ‘And I was an anarchist then.’
I first encountered McQueen at the London Ritz in 1993, when he was selling his first collection after graduating from Central Saint Martins, as Isabella Blow ran around his rail singing choruses of
AlexAnder the greAt We salute the late
aleXaNDeR MCQueeN, fashioN’s eNfaNt teRRible
aND a pioNeeR Who WoRkeD With sWaRovski oN five
MeMoRable ColleCtioNs
A CUT ABOVE Alexander McQueen pins and tucks a dress made with Swarovski crystal from his Spring/Summer 2009 collection
WORDS Sarah Mower PHOTOGRAPHY Claire Robertson
GE
TT
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Imaginative industrial creations use Swarovski Elements in an interiors collection shimmering with emotion and bright ideas
DESIGNSFORLIFEWORDS Nick Compton PHOTOGRAPHY Marcus Gaab STYLING Lyndsay Milne McLeod
GE
TT
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MeLLow yeLLow From far left ‘Low paper plane’ chairs by Doshi Levien for Moroso; Quarry series round table by Gitta Gschwendtner for Quinze & Milan; Lotus plate (on table) by Studio Pei-Zhu for when objects work; square and round stools, from the Quarry series by Gitta Gschwendtner for Quinze & Milan; all made with Swarovski elements
GE
TT
Y
out of the blue Clockwise from top textile by fanny Aronsen for Kvadrat; side table and coffee tables (large and small), all the un-wired collection by Neri & hu for bD barcelona Design; all made with Swarovski elements
says Gschwendtner. Her other piece for
Swarovski Elements at Work took a very
different tack, sinking the crystals into a
black silicon vase.
Fanny Aronsen has built a reputation as
one of the world’s most innovative textile
designers while the Danish texti le
company Kvadrat, Aronsen’s long-term
manufacturing partner, is a design force
in its own right. Aronsen has worked with
Kvadrat to produce three new textiles
incorporating crystal and using a new
flocking technique.
‘Working with Fanny Aronsen is always
a pleasure,’ says Njusja de Gier, Kvadrat
marketing director. ‘And she has created
three beautiful textile designs, and a wall
covering, which represents a perfect
symbiosis between the crystals and the
fabric, bringing out the best of both.’
Swarovski Elements has also turned to
leading Beijing-based architect/designers
Studio Pei-Zhu and the Shanghai-based
husband and wife design/architecture/
retail team, Neri & Hu. The architect Zhu
Pei worked with Belgian tableware
specialists when objects work. Zhu’s
Lotus Plate is a decorative platter made
from an undulating slab of polished glass
scattered with crystals. ‘It’s always
interesting to see architects translate
their ideas into small objects,’ says
Thomas Ostyn, head of production for
when objects work. ‘They are so deeply
concerned with proportion and function.
This piece is no exception.’
Zhu, meanwhile, has a more poetic take
on the project. ‘The Chinese name for
crystal – shui jing – translates as ‘water
stone’. Imagine a Chinese garden, and a
lotus leaf floating in water after a soft
rain. The water droplets evoke scattered
reflections of time and light from the
crystal’s surface.’
Rossana Hu and Lyndon Neri have
hooked up w i th two European
manufacturers for their contributions to
the project. Working with BD Barcelona
Design they have come up with a
remarkable take on the dressing table,
where a simple storage chest opens out
to reveal three folding mirrors, topped
with a crystal-set lattice. The Narcissist
collection also includes a matching stool,
wall mirror and jewellery case.
The Un-wired collection, produced with
Italian manufacturer Meritalia, is a series of
tables with crystal-dappled black wire
mesh bases. ‘This collection glorifies the
natural brilliance of crystals,’ says Neri.
‘In the dark, the blackened wire fades
into the background, making it seem as
if the crystals are floating in the air.’
Swarovski Elements at Work is a departure for Swarovski. Over the last
eight years the crystal titan has established itself as an adventurous and
proactive patron of contemporary design, with its series of Swarovski
Crystal Palace exhibitions at Salone Internazionale del Mobile and the
Design Miami design fair. High wattage designers such as Zaha Hadid,
Yves Béhar, Studio Job, Ron Arad, the Campana Brothers and even
artists better known in other fields, such as musician Lenny Kravitz, have
produced extraordinary celebrations of light and design.
The Swarovski Elements at Work programme is an entirely different kettle
of crystal fish to Swarovski Crystal Palace. The aim of the initiative was
to marry leading designers with major manufacturers for a productive
and ongoing relationship developing crystal designs with a genuine
commercial afterlife. Some of the biggest names in the world of design
took part in this year’s initiative, including the renowned industrial designer
Konstantin Grcic (see the interview on page 96).
Other designers involved in the programme include the rising British
partnership Doshi Levien. In recent years, this exciting design office led
by Jonathan Levien and Nipa Doshi has collaborated with Moroso, one
of Italy’s most forward-thinking and daring manufacturers.
‘Their work is really new in the way that it so successfully mixes tradition
and modernity,’ says Moroso’s creative director, Patrizia Moroso. Doshi
was born in India and the influence of Indian textiles and pattern is clear
in their projects. For Swarovski Elements at Work, Doshi Levien and
Moroso have come together again to produce an armchair using a
checked pattern with a repeated detail in crystal. ‘We had to make sure
that the crystal had a function and didn’t overwhelm the piece,’ says Doshi.
Another London-based designer (though born in Tehran), Sebastian
Bergne, turned to Istanbul manufacturers Gaia & Gino to produce a range
of bowls and vases. The range uses Iznik quartz – a material with a long
history in Turkish ceramics – and Swarovski Elements, the result being a
decorative departure for Bergne, who is associated with design pared
down to an absolute minimum. As he says: ‘I’ve moved a long way out of
my comfort zone here, working with decoration.’ For Gaia & Gino founder
Gaye Cevikel, it was worth the risk. ‘Sebastian had been on my wish list
for a while. And the result of this project is an extraordinary combination
of Turkish history and contemporary design.’
Gaia & Gino have also partnered with French designer François
Azambourg and the Japanese design brand Nendo. Azambourg used a
chaton leather – a special application technique developed by Swarovski
Elements for incorporating crystal elements in smooth leather for desktop
boxes and trays. Oki Sato of Nendo design collective meanwhile has
produced the most playful of the projects: a glass puzzle with a single
Swarovski crystal at its heart. Cevikel says working with Nendo pushed
the company into new directions. ‘They are very creative and conceptual,’
she says. ‘We have ended up making Gaia & Gino’s first non-functional
product. But it’s a thing of great beauty and it’s also fun.’
Another Swarovski veteran was Tomoko Azumi, co-creator of the
ubiquitous LEM stool, a staple in kitchens and bars around the world. For
Swarovski Elements at Work, the London-based Azumi collaborated with
Italian furniture maker Lapalma to design tables which are essentially
angular sheet metal boxes with glass tops. Inside these boxes LEDs and
suspended crystals perform a delicate dance. As Lapalma’s head of
export Marco Desiderati puts it: ‘We really don’t need any more objects
these days. But we do need emotion and sensation.’
Working with the Belgian company Quinze & Milan, London-based
German designer Gitta Gschwendtner has produced a small range of
pieces. ‘What was important to me was to make something which
challenged the application of crystals,’ she says. ‘They had to be entirely
integrated into the piece.’ The partnership came up with a stool and low
table, cast in a plaster and resin mix, with crystal-dashed crumbled
corners. ‘I love the way the crystals are so highly engineered and precise
and perfect but appear in the imperfect moment of the broken corner,’
93
cleAr DeSigN brief Below crystal puzzle collection by Nendo for gaia & gino; Soft crystal vases by gitta gschwendtner for Quinze & Milan
GE
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Y
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seeing red Clockwise from top The narcissist wall mirror (and on floor), tocador, beauty box and stool, all neri & Hu for Bd Barcelona design; candle holder, the eye collection, by sebastian Bergne for gaia & gino; Floe tables (small and large), by Tomoko Azumi for Lapalma; fruit bowl, small vase and small bowl, all the eye collection by sebastian Bergne for gaia & gino; Floe table (medium), by Tomoko Azumi for Lapalma; all items made with swarovski elements
A-list artist and a football fan, Konstantin Grcic created three designs for Swarovski Elements at Work – and it was the industrial designer’s greatest challenge yet
man ofinDustry
WORDS Nick Compton PHOtOgRaPHy Markus Jans
97
do. ‘In some ways the project is about
the chemistry of the two companies
coming together,’ says Grcic. ‘Abet were
really enthusiastic from the start and it
was like they were thinking to themselves,
“damn, why didn’t we think of this?” And
on Swarovski’s part, they definitely saw
this as an idea with real potential.’
Graglia says that Grcic was a uniquely
active design partner. ‘We have worked
and do work with designers all over the
world... Working with Konstantin was
completely di f ferent because his
approach is very technical. He was at
Abet Laminati for the f irst step in
production, wanting to see the process
and understand the process and he was
available during the whole processes.
And that understanding of the process
influenced the final design.’
In simple terms, the process of producing
laminate involved squashing together –
with tremendous force – ten pieces of
paper and a resin, and then baking it at
high temperatures. The challenge was
how to impregnate the crystal in the
laminate without crushing it to powder
and leaving it highly visible at the end.
Grcic describes the process as a highly
technical version of a child sprinkling
glitter on to glue and paper and giving it
a shake. And then applying another layer
without obscuring the crystals.
Once they had come up with a workable
solution – and according to all parties, it
wasn’t easy – Grcic came up with three
designs: Ray, Peak and Bling. Technical
job done, Abet Laminati is keen to take
Grcic’s designs to interior designers and
architects, and start producing orders.
Nick Compton is features director of Wallpaper*
In an exhibition room in Milan the German designer Konstantin Grcic is
not happy with the lighting. Not that he’s the kind of design diva who
would stomp or hiss for dramatic effect. But Grcic is the kind of man
driven to make new and different things in new and different ways and he
isn’t going to let a maverick spotlight ruin its first public appearance. And
given that his new design, actually three new designs, is a crystal-
encrusted laminate surface, the lighting is pretty crucial.
Grcic’s Crystaline Collection is one of a number of designs on display at
Milan’s Triennale Design Museum during Salone Internazionale del Mobile,
the world’s primo design fair. Swarovski have taken a good chunk of the
building to show off their first edition Swarovski Elements at Work, and
have been able to tempt the international A-list designer Grcic this year.
‘This project seems to have an industrial motivation,’ says Grcic. ‘And that
really did interest me.’
The last few years have seen designers forced to take sides as artists or
industrialists, limited editioners or machine-minded modernists. The really
smart and increasingly successful – Marc Newson, Ron Arad and a few
others – managed to pull off the trick having it both ways.
Grcic has come off as a confirmed industrialist, insisting that design and
duplication go hand in hand. At times he has appeared almost angry –
though it is a stretch to imagine Grcic ever more than vaguely piqued – at
the idea that design should break its industrial promise, its commitment
to good design for all, as an overriding principle anyway.
In truth his position is a little more sophisticated than that. Grcic does not
insist that design has to be accessible to be good. As long as the ‘culture
of objects’ is advanced somehow, he views it as a good thing. But it is
Grcic’s work, the ability to turn the industrial process to remarkable and
often challenging new forms – in big numbers or small numbers – that most
undermines the suggestion that design is now a straightforward tale of
roundheads and cavaliers. Grcic somehow stands for the full stretch of
contemporary design. Swarovski Elements at Work was another stretch.
The project was an opportunity for Grcic to push himself outside his
comfort zone, trying something he hadn’t done before with people he
hadn’t worked with before. ‘The key to the project was choosing the
people I wanted to work with. And not to choose people I am used to
working with, like Magis or Moroso. And rather than designing a piece of
furniture that had crystals in it, I wanted to design a material that
incorporated crystals, something that could be used in interior design or
to make furniture from.’
It was a project with an unlikely inspiration. ‘The idea came on my first visit
to Swarovski’s headquarters at Wattens in Austria. They showed us all the
stuff they do and the research they are doing and then they pulled out this
postage stamp they had made for the European Football Championship
two years ago which was held in Austria and Switzerland.’ It may have
helped that Munich-based Grcic is something of a footie fan.
‘The thing about the stamp is that it had crystals on it,’ enthuses Grcic.
‘It was unbelievable. Sure you can stick the crystals on there but to stick
them on there in such a way that they will still be on there when the card
arrives at the other end of the world. That was unbelievable. Something
so fragile and beautiful. And that gave me the idea.’
Grcic wanted to apply crystals to paper but in a way and on a scale that
had never been done before, permanently. And for this he needed the
right partner. He turned to Abet Laminati, an Italian laminate manufacturer
with a proud history of working with the best of the post-war Italian
designers including Ettore Sottsass, Allessandro Mendini and Joe
Colombo. ‘It’s in our DNA, trying to satisfy the demands of designers,’
says Lodovico Graglia, Abet Laminati’s sales and marketing director.
Once the partnership was established, it was a matter of letting team
Grcic and team Abet Laminati come together and see what they could
‘Grcic has DEscribED
thE procEss as a hiGhly
tEchnical vErsion of a
chilD sprinklinG GlittEr
on to GluE anD papEr
anD GivinG it a shakE’
SURFACE DETAIL Below Konstantin Grcic’s Crystaline Collection laminates, encrusted with Swarovski Elements
the shape of
things to come
STARRY NIGHTThe new Crystal Silver Night is sleek and sophisticated. With its refined silver and at times translucent finish, it perfectly suits the current trend for sophisticated, unobtrusive hues. Available in a mix of various shapes and cuts, for maximum impact.
From Sunflower chatons to pendants and beads, the latest colours, cuts and shapes from Swarovski Elements are sure to have a dazzling impact
PHOTOGRAPHY Coppi Barbieri STYLING Johanne Mills
1.THE SUN SHINES BRIGHT The new Sunflower colour evokes memories of sunshine and laughter and captures the essence of summer. Yellow will advance from surrounding colours and offer enlightenment and happiness.
Available in a mix of various shapes and cuts.
SHAPE AND SHINE
Opposite: The new Hexagon
Sew-on Stone has a classic, yet
futuristic appearance, due to its
asymmetric facets. This page: The
Helios Pendant has delicate facets
inspired by sun rays, resulting
in a sophisticated elegance.
a return to nature
this page and opposite: the latest
Ceramics range is inspired by
nature, with the craquelle glaze
finish offering softness and
modernity. this new Marbled
Sea Green colour is inspired by
foaming sea-green. available in
various colours including the new
Marbled terracotta, a down-to-
earth colour that evokes autumn
forest floors and clay artefacts.
BOLD AND BEAUTIFULThis page and opposite: De-Art isa striking new asymmetric shape which reflects the rising trend of volume and sculpture. Available as a Sew-on Stone, Fancy Stone,
Flat Fancy Stone and Pendant (this page). The Flat Fancy
Stone is shown opposite.
see the lightThis page Using revolutionary
technology, the Xilion Oval has alternating small and large facets, resulting in an intense luminosity.
Opposite this season’s new Rose Pins are stainless steel components
with sparkling Xilions Rose in a vast colour range. Due to the high
resistance of stainless steel Rose Pins are especially suitable for usage on various leather types.
© H
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110
Did the maths help?Yes, maths has helped, but not in the way people suspect. Not because of calculations, but in terms of logic and abstraction and chance theory, and geometry. Now, because of computing, it is a very important discourse in architecture.
You have always painted and you have designed all sorts of things, from furniture to a car to shoes and jewellery. What is it about these non-architectural pursuits that interest you?At the beginning I was very interested in fashion. I was living in London in the Seventies and Eighties and it was a thing then to dress up. With things like punk rock, you had people almost dressing in costume. But generally I find that other media always adds something to the work. For example, we designed a carpet recently
Zaha Hadid was born in Baghdad in 1950, where she grew up, the daughter of a liberal politican and well-to-do industrialist. She studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before taking up architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, the city that became her home. On graduating she worked with her former tutors, Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis at the Off ice for Metropolitan Architecture and became a partner in 1977. In 1980 she set up Zaha Hadid Architects, in London, and is now one of the world’s foremost architects with a string of extraordinary organic and innovative buildings to her name. She is currently creating for the 2012 Olympics in London the striking Olympics Aquatics Centre, which has a roof shaped like a wave. Her work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and she has taught extensively at prestigious
RENAISSANCE WOMAN
world-famous architect
Zaha hadid has created
ambitious organically
formed buildings, lighting
installations and jewellery.
here, she talks about her
extraordinary careerinterview Peter Howarth POrtrAit Henry Bourne
institutions globally. In 2004 she became the first woman to win the Pritzker, the architect’s equivalent of a Nobel Prize.
You studied mathematics originally; when did you decide you wanted to be an architect?I always wanted to be an architect – mathematics was really a diversion. Ever since the age of 10 or 11 I was set on architecture. It was not a strategy, more a gut feeling. After all, at 11 you are not completely rational.
What was it about buildings?I grew up in Iraq in the Sixties and there was a whole lot of nation-building going on. I’d also see the construction that was going on in America in my parents’ copies of Life magazine. My parents were interested in architecture, though they were not architects, and I remember being taken to see an architectural show when I was very young – six or seven years old – and it intrigued me.
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112
WORDS Arabella Dickie PHOTOGRAPHY Arabella Dickie
REACHING THE HEIGHTS (Clockwise
from top) Zaha Hadid’s Hungerburgbahn above
Innsbruck, Austria; her ‘Light Sculpture’
for Swarovski Crystal Palace; the interior of the
BMW factory, Leipzig, Germany; Bergisel ski
jump, Innsbruck, Austria; the exterior of the
BMW factory
‘The crysTals
have a “now you
see iT, now you
don’T” effecT.
They almosT
look like sand
in These organic
forms which
clasp your wrisT’
with a long repeat pattern and it was very refreshing, not only for ideas about making rugs, but for ideas about architecture. But you know design and architecture have a long history – think of the Bauhaus for example. It was only much later that things became specialised. However, now the boundaries are more open.
As part of your repertoire, you have done a lot of work with Swarovski.Yes, I met Nadja Swarovski a few years back and we talked about doing a light. Originally she wanted me to do a chandelier, but I didn’t want to create a normal chandelier. Instead I eventually created a column of crystals and LED lights for Swarovski Crystal Palace which was shown at the Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan in 2008. We had done a landscape lighting installation together the year before for the Serpentine Summer Party and then we worked on some jewellery.
What is it about crystal that appeals to you?I am interested in jewellery; I have some very odd stuff myself! But when it came to doing the jewellery for Atelier Swarovski I wanted to go beyond the obvious. So instead of encrusting the pieces with crystals I wanted to have them captured, which I did by using resin. The crystals now have a ‘now you see it, now you don’t’ effect; they almost look like sand in these organic forms which clasp your wrist. When you hold the pieces in the light you can see the sparkle.
Swarovski is an Austrian company based near Innsbruck, where the skyline is dominated by the ski jump you designed and your series of mountain railway stations runs out of the city. You are also a professor at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and you have done a lot of work in Germany too. Why do you think Teutonic countries like your work so much?Actually I gave a lecture in Munich last night, and this came up. The truth is that at the start the only work we had was in Germany – the Vitra Fire Station in Weil am Rhein and the BMW Central Building in Leipzig. Then there were the projects in Innsbruck, and there’s now a housing project in Vienna too that is not very well known. I think the truth is that rather than being indicative of a special relationship with Germany and Austria, this was all the result of the competition system for new buildings that operates in Continental Europe. This means that architects who don’t have political connections can apply in a normal competitive way.
Does this system encourage innovative work?What is exciting is that cities have the ambition to become more important and interesting through architecture – and that people are proud of their cities because of its architecture. Sometimes, as in Berlin, there is literally an ambition to rebuild a capital – almost a state – through architecture. But it’s not just a philosophy that applies to large metropolises: Innsbruck is a small town (albeit a major university town), and here there was a competition to rebuild the old ski jump which had become redundant because of rule changes to the sport. But the jump is right in the centre of the city, so it afforded a great opportunity to do something ambitious that would make a difference.
So there’s a social aspect to this approach? Yes, in the case of the ski jump I introduced a public room at the top, a small café, where people could go to see the view and have a drink. Interestingly, this was not a view that had been seen before unless you were actually jumping! Equally, in the BMW building in Leipzig, it was a test to see how you can combine blue collar workers and white collar workers on the same site, not separated. I am attracted to ideas of layering and developing programmes that add to a city.
Of course today you are building many of your buildings and seeing your extraordinary visions come to life all over the world. But there was a time when you were considered to be someone who had great ideas that were, however, unbuildable. Did that depress you?Well, it wasn’t my choice. Of course it depressed me. It was disappointing to me. And it was exhausting, working day and night doing what we considered to be fantastic work and all for nothing. It was very detrimental. I thought I was stigmatised.
What do you think changed?The ambitions got higher. People began to see other architecture that was out of the box – that was not repetitive, not normative – getting built. And technology changed. It helps, it made it easier. You can now 3D model a bracelet for Swarovski or a piece of material for the cladding of a building. Computing meant that things that previously were considered too difficult to actually realise, could become reality. Maybe culturally too, people started to look at 3D drawings on computer games and special effects in films and get used to a new, more fantastic visual language.
And did you find that people started to want this visually unusual
language more often?The traditionalists assume that people don’t want innovative things. But I think ambition has shifted. Not everyone is privileged enough to be able to take a flight to go and see something interesting. They should be able to see it locally. People should be able to see these things. And people do want to see new things. In a way it’s like
CAPTuRING BEAuTY Atelier Swarovski by Zaha
Hadid, with crystals embedded in resin
when you go hiking in the mountains – you find it uplifting. Well architecture can do this.
When you say you thought you were stigmatised, did you feel that being a woman in a man’s world contributed to that?At the beginning, for sure. But one gets over these things. I’m not going to become a man to make them happy. There was also the foreign issue too. In fact it was a combination of things – being a foreign woman with ambitious work. I was not in their comfort zone. But one cannot allow these things to deter you. It is also true that I have also had enormous support because I was a woman in a man’s world. In any case things have changed now – certainly after winning the Pritzker it changed a lot.
You are originally from Baghdad, where you grew up. Would you like to be given the opportunity to help reconstruction there?It would be a very exciting project – to rebuild that city. I have recently been approached to do certain work there and if it happens it would be fantastic.
And, of course, in a less dramatic but perhaps equally exciting way, your Olympic Aquatics Centre is a major element in the regeneration of the East End. As a Londoner, are you proud to be involved in 2012?I’ve lived in London for almost 40 years – it’s a great city, always inspiring projects that are unpredictable. About 20 years ago we did a project at the Architectural Association where we drew lines through the city and then travelled along these lines. It was very interesting because, first of all, it showed that certain things were aligned with each other, but that other things – when you jumped from one level to the next – were tremendously varied. I’ve been fascinated by East London for decades. I used to visit the Royal Docks in the Seventies before there was any new development. I actually did studies and drawings more than 15 years ago about how London should be developed towards the East – and it’s very interesting to see how the Olympics are now part of this development. The legacy of the Olympic Games are just as important as during the Games, and the Aquatics Centre has been designed to ensure it will be an incredible facility for everyone in London after the event.
Peter Howarth is the editor-in chief of Salt, the former editor of
Esquire and a columnist for The Times
SURVIVALINSTINCTS
PhotograPhy Tom Mannion SEt DESIgN Emma Roach
Taking inspiration from the animal kingdom, key trends for autumn/winter 2011/12 divide into different schools of thought. On one hand, paring back is paramount
with a focus on nature, tradition and the real and tangible. On the other, encompassed by a positive and uplifting mood, we embrace the future and look forward to new
horizons. Our animal instincts have been aroused, with a sense of survival, community and security at the fore. With our newfound wisdom, we turn once again to nature
and her inhabitants for guidance and instruction
Crystal Silver
Night
Light Azore Sand Opal Silk Light Grey Opal
115
harMoNy
Taking inspiration from the snow rabbit, a sense of cocooning peacefulness defines the Harmony theme. Taking comfort in a sense of rediscovered safety, a paler-than-pale winter palette of creamy neutrals and hazy winter pastels is found in whisper-soft cashmere and luxurious mohair. Sensuous silks and satins trim loungerie. Nurturing and the need to be still are key.
Crystal Silver
Night
Topaz Sunflower Light Smoked
Topaz
Smoked Topaz Jet Night
116
CLASSIC
Taking inspiration from the brown bear, Classic is strong, sustainable and sturdy. Respecting and intoning the environment, it offers up a reassuring earthy palette of chocolate and tan, highlighted with bright pumpkin and sunflower yellow. Root, twig and branch-like structures are incorporated into jewellery. Tarnished metallics and pewters are prominent.
Crystal Silver
Night
Siam Dark Indigo Khaki Sunflower Crystal Red
Magma
Jet Nut
PROGRESSIVE
Taking inspiration from the wily fox, Progressive focuses on survival by returning to tradition. In a complete back-flip, Conservatism is now the new radical. Nostalgic, pigmented earthy browns and olive greens are prevalent. Fashion reflects a sense of social responsibility and reliability with traditional textiles of proven qualities including tweed, cord and knitwear.
ROMANTIC
Taking inspiration from the brilliantly-hued kingfisher, imaginations are set to soar in Romantic. Fabulous fuchsias, sunflower yellows and burnt orange marry in poetic songs of colour. Fashion is eccentric and opulent, as we set our sights on the soaring spontaneity of decadent dress and abundant accessories. We are ready to fly, to stretch our wings and usher in a new era filled with passion, romance and intrigue.
118
Topaz Olivine Rose Indicolite Sunflower Crystal Silver
GLAMOUR
Taking inspiration from a beautiful, black stallion, Glamour emulates its streamlined power and grace. Sure-footed once again, fashion is sleek and sexy, in a powerful palette, with midnight blue and smoky purples melding into black hues. Opulent fabrics, in an abundance of velvet and satin, encase strong sleek silhouettes, proudly proclaiming we are back in business.
Amethyst Crystal Night
Blue Pearl
Montana Crystal Silver
Night
Dark Indigo Jet
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HOT ROCKS A perfect combination of minerals and temperature has created a truly awesome crystal cave in Mexico
‘you feel like an astronaut about to go on
a space walk,’ says George Kourounis,
one of the world’s leading explorers and
extreme environment photographers. he
is describing the specially adapted bio-
suit and respirator he needed to wear in
order to survive the blistering heat of the
cave where the world’s largest crystals
are to be found. ‘i suppose, in a way,
there is very little difference between outer
space and these caves,’ he says, referring
to the harshness of the conditions he
encountered underground.
the Cueva de los Cristales, Cave of
Crystals, is part of an old lead mining
complex in a remote corner of the
Chihuahua Desert, mexico. about 300
metres down one of the shafts is a natural
chamber filled with perfect obelisks of
selenite – crystallized gypsum – that are
simply huge. some of them are 11m long
and weigh 55 tonnes. they are easily the
biggest ever discovered.
Crystal Universe
most caves get colder the deeper you go. But, because the
Cave of Crystals sits on top of a magma chamber, it gets hotter,
peaking at about 45C. Faced with this extreme temperature
and 100 per cent humidity, the human body will dehydrate and
literally bake. Without ice packs sewn into his suit Kourounis
would be dead in an hour. he says that in this geological oven
normal cameras don’t work. even his ruggedised kit failed after
only one day’s shooting.
as inhospitable as they are to humans, these caves are the
perfect nurseries for crystals to grow. left undisturbed for half
a million years in a stable temperature, the abundant mineral-
rich water in the cave system slowly forms perfectly faceted
selenite crystals. ‘it’s a natural marvel,’ says Juan manuel
García-ruiz, a crystallographer at spain’s University of Granada,
whose team of researchers unlocked the mystery of how the
crystals formed. there’s no limit to how big they can grow, but
temperature is the key factor. in other caves, where there’s been
rapid cooling, growth is not so dramatic.
the chamber itself was unknown until 2000, when a pair of
brothers stumbled on it while conducting a geophysical survey
of the mine. ten metres wide and 30m long, it’s not particularly
spacious, but what the cavern lacks in size, it makes up for in
intO tHe Crystal MaZe If you want to
see the world’s largest natural crystals you’ll need to go
deep underground in Mexico. But be warned, it’s hot
in those caves WORDS Nick Smith
a dazzling display of glittering surfaces.
its floor is covered in crystalline blocks,
while enormous crystal beams jut out
from all angles.
like pillars of light, these crystals are
flawless, transparent and magical.
García-ruiz calls it the sistine Chapel of
geology. ‘there’s no other place on the
planet where the mineral world reveals
itself in such beauty,’ García-ruiz says.
For the intrepid explorer the interior of the
cave is as dangerous as it is beautiful.
even cocooned in all his temperature-
regulated gear Kourounis was still in
danger. he paints a terrifying picture of
the jagged terrain the crystals create:
‘each step had to be placed carefully.
one slip and you could fall and become
impaled on a crystal.’
Nick Smith is a contributing editor on the Explorers
Journal and is a former editor of Geographical
122
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