PHOTO: Everyone Crazy about Crystals on Clothes

Swarovski crystals have become an essential signature on luxury collections by fashion designers.

From a little stone on Hussein Chalayan dresses, through sophisticated chiffon covered in crystals by Rodarte and Proenza Schoulder, crystals have become part of clothes features, be it underwear or high fashion. The leading luxury brand, when talking about treated stones, is surely Swiss Swarovski. 

The history of the Swiss company was written by Austrian glazier and craftsman Daniel Swarowski who in 1892 licensed an electric machine for cutting crystals. The brand was founded in 1895 and conquered the market with crystal sculptures, jewellery, and became an integral part of the fashion industry. According to the label’s heiress Nadja Swarovski, whose trade mark is a swan, Swarovski produces around 350 thousand different stones of different shapes, size and colours.

Fashion designers are regular visitors of their creative centre which are placed in Paris, Milan, London, New York, Sao Paulo, New Delhi, Shanghai and Hong Kong in order to find appropriate crystals for their collections. If a fashion dictators want to design their own stones as recognisable signature in one of the creative centre, they can choose colour, shape and they can even give it a name.

Nadja Swarovski told Vogue that they have always felt as a neutral force in the fashion industry which has led them in two directions. On one hand, they offer financial support to new talents, and on the other they offer beautiful objects for games and challenge to designers to create a gorgeous clothing piece with crystals in an innovative way, through and award they assign with the American Council of Fashion Designers.

- There are a lot of young designers out there, but they don't necessarily have a chance - said Nadja Swarovski.

The new trend of using crystals as effective details was adopted by many fashion designers. Christopher Kane used them as an effective detail on shoulders of his current collection, while Giles Deacon used them to decorate his sculptural shoes. Designer Gereth Pugh launched irreplaceable tights with crystals in his autumn/winter collections, inspired by “The Wizard of Ozz”. Proene Scholder presented embossed ornaments on his simple pieces. Even British Philip Treacy could not resist using small stones. In his spring/summer collection, techno freak Hussein Calayan prepared an setup in which laser lights reflect through crystals.

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