Swarovski is the best ambassador for the modern version of her company.
“You do the swan and the duck – why would we ever want that in fashion?” Nadja Swarovski shudders as she recounts the withering put-down from a snooty magazine stylist twenty-five years ago. The memory prompts the heir of the world’s most famous crystal company breaks into a wide, gleaming grin, suggesting just how ridiculous that statement would be if said today.
Elegantly dressed in immaculate cream jeans, a chic two-tone suede jacket and glittering crystals that adorn her neck, wrists and earlobes, Swarovski is the best ambassador for the modern version of her company.
The sole female member of an Swarovski executive board, which counts four male distant cousins, she fought her way back into the family business and gave the crystal group a new lease of life -transforming it from a dated tableware and chandelier business to one which counts collaborations with feted designers such as Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane, Karl Lagerfeld, Peter Pilotto and a new home range that includes Aldo Bakker and the late Zaha Hadid.
Swarovski, 46, grew up in Wattens, Austria, sewing crystals on to pairs of jeans that her father, Helmut, brought home with him. But she found Tyrol claustrophobic and the pressure of legacy and duty to lead her to flee to university in Dallas where she sneaked off to art history lessons, rather than the patriarchal preference for engineering.
“Our family life was so much about the company, I wondered where I fitted in”, Swarovski says in her soft Texan-Teutonic accent.
“My father was so focused on the business and there was a lot of pressure, but you just have to do something you are passionate about because then you will have unlimited motivation.”
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